Organisation: Department of Natural Resources and Mines
Job Title: Principal Investigator – AO7
Word Limit: No longer than 2 pages
Location: Nambour
Activity One
Whilst working as the safety coordinator for Incitec Pivot Fertilisers (IPL) I was responsible for managing all work relating to the creation and implementation of the Turnaround Safety Management Plan for the four yearly major maintenance shutdown. The turnaround is a complete shutdown of the plant to do extensive maintenance of the equipment on-site. Performing the shut down in this way reduces the risk of injury to those working on the plant.
As the Health Safety Environment Coordinator (HSEC), it was my responsibility to coordinate all health, safety, and environment factors on site. This required me to liaise with the Emergency Response Team (ERT), the on-site nurses, the environmental team, and the safety teams on site. The turnaround was for a period of 35 days at a cost of $40 million and therefore required in-depth planning. To assist with this I had to ensure I established relationships with team members on-site and external stakeholders for example those from the Department of Natural Resources and Mines, whilst ensuring we adhered to the Mining and Quarries Act and Regulations.
The planning stage involved the creation of the safety management plan with input from the different teams on-site and ensuring these teams were aware of their roles and responsibilities, and reviewing all the work packs for formulating risk assessments starting with the high-risk tasks. This also included but was not limited to securing the different teams on-site that covered induction, responsibilities, and training. Allocation of tasks to on-site crew not directly involved in specific turnaround tasks, the review of work packs and formulating risk assessments, creation of the safety management and safety audit plan. Engaging the Royal Flying Doctors Service for medical emergencies and supplies, and ensuring there was an emergency response plan for all high-risk tasks.
To achieve these requirements I split the plant up and assigned a different plant to each of the safety advisors. If an incident occurred, they were the first point of contact for that plant. My aim was to assign a plant expert with another experienced person so there was always an experienced person on-site to provide advice when required. The plants involved were the Beneficiation Plant, Phosphoric Acid Plant (PAP), Granulator Plant, Ammonia (NH3) Plant, MAC Compressor, and Nitrogen (N2) compressor.
On commencement of the shutdown period I delivered the induction training for the supervisors, this encompassed what my expectations were of them and their staff. I allocated jobs to safety advisors and assigned required daily audits. During the planning stage, I identified the job safety audits (JSA’s) were on a very generic template and were not specific for a job. Because of this, the safety advisors had to check the JSA’s and confirm this included all work and equipment needed to perform the tasks. I provided direction regarding required changes ensuring documents contained necessary information to complete these audits.
There were two instances of injuries, which resulted in two team members being airlifted to hospital by the Royal Flying Doctors Service; it was my responsibility to investigate why these incidents occurred and what could be done to avoid a future occurrence.
On completion of the turnaround I was required to complete close out reports. My responsibility in this task was preparing the shutdown report for safety and environmental factors. I had to compare what we had planned to do with turnaround achievements, including anything that did not go according to plan. My report spanned 60 pages and combined feedback from the emergency response team, environmental team, safety advisors, and the training department. I detailed any incidents that occurred, how and why these happened, and recommendations for changes to site procedures, which would reduce or eliminate similar incidents in future.
The outcome of this turnaround from my role as the Health Safety Environment Coordinator was everyone worked together as a team, I developed relationships with the site safety team, and taught team members how to conduct investigations in the correct manner. This project also highlighted areas of improvement in the current site safety procedures. I provided guidance on how improvements could be made including details of legislation required to be followed. Areas of improvement I identified during this project resulted in a massive enhancement to safety, which was an extremely positive outcome for the site.
Activity Two
While performing the role of equipment controller at Mount Isa mines it was my responsibility to manage the high-risk equipment, including gas detectors, safety equipment, lifting equipment, electrical equipment, pneumatic tools, barriers and barricades, and gas cylinders. My role was a newly implemented role and was created to reduce expenditure on purchasing equipment multiple times. There was no centralised ordering and storage area on site so if a piece of equipment could not be found a replacement was purchased.
The first ordering and storage system I implemented was one that encompassed gas cylinders purchased through BOC. When a cylinder was ordered from BOC, it was hired not purchased so when this was not returned when empty the company was paying hire charges for empty cylinders. Utilising the swipe card system, I created a storage system for gas cylinders “Operation Gas Cylinder Storage” in line with legislated storage requirements. This created a centralised storage area for the cylinders required on site and ensured the return of empty gas cylinders when a full cylinder was obtained from this area.
To communicate this implementation to staff I organised toolbox talks that were performed at shift hand over meetings. During these talks, I discussed the change to process, why it was being implemented, how the system worked and the expected outcomes. I also showed each supervisor the new process so they could circulate this information within their team. Supervisors were extremely receptive of these changes as it meant all items were in a centralised location, they would not be required to order equipment, and it would virtually eliminate the risk of a site shutdown due to insufficient materials on hand.
Using the swipe card system meant only employees of the copper smelter could access these and enabled auditability. I was able to run a daily report to identify who had accessed the storage location and if an empty cylinder had not been returned I was able to follow this up. Not only did this system remove instances of empty cylinders on-site, it also resulted in a $20,000 saving to the company in the first quarter of operation.
Following successful implementation of the gas cylinders system, I moved to the next item. Creating a centralised location also enabled me to identify equipment that was not lasting as long as expected. For example, we would using many harnesses and lanyards as these were deteriorating in the harsh environment of the site and chemical exposure. I was able to work with the suppliers to create harnesses that would last. Having these harnesses last for a longer period resulted in a cost saving for the company as these were not replaced as frequently as they had been. Due to the changes I implemented, I was featured in the Mount Isa Mines Market paper.
