Visibly improving safety inspections
January 1st 2008

A large production facility or warehouse may have hundreds of pieces of equipment demanding regular inspection under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER) 1998. The requirement to keep a record of inspections which are sometimes carried out several times a day can result in a paper chase that breeds confusion and omission. SG World's solution helped Nissan's main UK distribution centre develop an easy to use inspection system

At Nissan's main UK distribution centre in Leicestershire, each of its 72 forklifts and other mechanical handling vehicles were inspected twice a day at the start of each shift. A system of inspection books with checklists and signoff slips was devised by the company, but when the books were reviewed during spot checks or after incidents it was clear from the missed inspections and absent files that the system was not working.

Nissan needed an inspection system that stayed very visibly with the equipment and could be checked at a glance without interrupting work. The system would need to provide for simple checklist inspections that could not be forgotten by operators at the start of each shift and would make it instantly clear to maintenance staff if parked equipment required attention.

Facilities Manager Steve McDonnell is responsible for health and safety at the Nissan distribution centre, and he discussed the problem with SG World, a company which has developed recording and inspection systems for all kinds of industrial, commercial and academic environments.

They worked together to create a bespoke checklist suitable for all Nissan warehouse equipment including racking systems and forklift trucks, and distilled out the items considered vital for a preshift inspection onto a single tick-box list.

The system comes in a vivid yellow inspection wallet that is permanently attached to the equipment, and incorporates a see-through pocket 'safety status indicator' for a green or red pass/fail inspection tag, printed on the reverse side of each tear out inspection sheet. After the inspection the operator dates the tag and places it red or green face up in the status indicator pocket to identify equipment requiring unscheduled maintenance, or confirming that the machine is checked and safe.

Kept in the inspection wallet and therefore always with the equipment, the cheque book-like pad of inspection sheets retains a duplicate which creates the inspection record of each item of equipment. The forklift truck version of the equipment inspection system is called Safe-Truck, and ensures compliance with HSE best practice guidelines that trucks should be inspected at the beginning of each shift; recommended inspection intervals vary according to the equipment.

'The SG World Safe -Truck Inspection System was different to anything we had seen before and offered a tick-box system that met all our needs. It was a very visual system that could confirm compliance even when machines were in use and could be used for all our mechanical handling equipment and other warehousing equipment too,' commented Mr McDonnell.

'The green/red inspection tag is a very clear indicator to an engineer walking along a line of parked trucks if any of them need attention. The system keeps our vehicles safe, ensures that the operators have done their inspection and results in failed vehicles getting rapid attention. It is also very simple to explain, and requires only minimal training to use; we brought it in one afternoon and went live with it the following morning,' added Mr McDonnell.

The simple format of a high visibility system which stays with the equipment and retains duplicate records is used again and again in safety inspection products for tower scaffolding, storage racking, elevated work platforms, ladders and pendant cranes. The system has broad applications in every industry, and recent purchasers of the SG World's pendant crane inspection system include Howard Smith Papers, Firth Rixon Superalloys and FMC Chemicals.

The regular inspection of equipment is pertinent to much health and safety legislation and guidance from PUWER, INDG402 and the working at height legislation to the Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007, which came into force in July. In 2003/04 the storage and warehousing industry alone reported 4,940 work related accidents to the HSE and Local Authorities, and 12 per cent of these were classified as major injuries. Unsafe machinery played a significant role, and the HSE stresses the importance of regular inspection and supports the use of daily checklists.

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