Careless health and safety practices within the construction industry were the cause of thousands of injuries and 148 deaths in the UK in 2013. The sad fact is that, with the correct personal protection equipment (PPE), proper diligence by employees, and employers and a proactive attitude could have counteracted some of these hazards and tragedies could have been avoided.
Continue reading “Construction Hazards and Ways to Decrease Risk of Injury”
Workers at a Texas Caterpillar plant were recently accused of stealing some $160,000 worth of parts. Nine people are believed to be involved in the thefts, which have been taking place since July.
Situations like the one faced by Caterpillar show how quickly theft problems can get out of control if they aren’t addressed quickly. Thanks in part to the fact that Caterpillar is known to have systems in place to monitor their processes, the perpetrators were caught and will now likely face prosecution.
But what can other companies do to protect themselves from theft? These crimes can’t always be prevented, but is there a way to limit the degree of their impact?
While it is hard to say what could have prevented this specific situation in Texas without knowing more facts, one thing is for certain: companies that employ barcoding-enabled organizational/accountability tools like CMMS stand the best chance of catching these problems early and limiting their impact.
+ Real time visibility into operations
It practically goes without saying that if a company maintains inventory of any kind, that inventory is recorded as an expense in an accounting system of some kind. Companies may differ in terms of the types of systems they use, but ultimately, they must track how much they’re spending on inventory.
But this can be a problem. Continue reading “Can Inventory Theft Be Prevented?”
Check out our latest article for OSHAcampus.com on how construction managers can maintain safety compliance without nagging or micromanaging.
Continue reading “How to Enforce Safety Compliance Without Micromanaging”
Don’t miss our latest article for Construction Executive’s Risk Management newsletter on how to keep your equipment safe from theft: http://bit.ly/1pihMI3
Continue reading “Keeping Your Construction Site Safe From Theft”
For years it appeared that Foster Farms, California’s largest producer of chicken, was doing an excellent job of keeping its meat salmonella-free.
When the company conducted regular salmonella testing on chicken carcasses, they usually found no trace of the dangerous bacteria. That all changed last year when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) discovered evidence that more than 600 people had contracted salmonella from Foster Farm’s chicken.
Suddenly, the company that had been the industry standard bearer for regulatory compliance found three of its key plants threatened with closure.
The ensuing investigation uncovered a startling fact: cut-up chicken parts test positive for salmonella about 25 percent of the time, while whole carcasses often show no sign of the bacteria. The discovery sent the entire poultry industry scrambling for answers.
Foster Farms took the lead and mobilized a comprehensive plan to locate the source of the salmonella contamination and eradicate it from their products. Here, we’ll take a closer look at how they executed this plan, and how tools like ManagerPlus CMMS can help other companies organize their own compliance efforts.
+ Emergency Response
Before Foster Farms could spend time worrying about where the salmonella was coming from, they had just 72 hours to come up with a plan to eliminate it from their products or face the closure of three of their plants.
The company launched their investigation by focusing on two key variables: the actual processing of the meat, and the environment in which the chickens were being raised.
Operating on narrow deadlines demands a high level of organization and efficiency. If any conclusions were to be made and quickly turned into a plan of action, communication and centralization of data were vital.
This is one of the primary ways in which CMMS solutions like ManagerPlus can be helpful to businesses. Information can be gathered from multiple locations and centralized, making it possible for management to focus on finding solutions, rather than tracking down data.
In the Foster Farm’s example, inspections of key processes and facilities could have been quickly created and immediately disseminated throughout their organization. For example, as management worked with regulators to track the source of the bacteria, they could have been using that information to create inspections that could have been started immediately.
+ A Systematic Approach
Operating within a narrow time frame can make it difficult to maintain efficiency. In the case of Foster Farms, there were questions concerning the security of their poultry facilities against pests like mice and bugs, and whether those pests were carrying salmonella from nearby orchards. Continue reading “How Strong Organization Saved Foster Farms from Regulatory Disaster”
Stories about the onset of mold-induced illness read like something out of a horror film. People who were perfectly healthy days or weeks ago develop sudden nosebleeds, rashes, headaches, and respiratory problems so severe that they must be hospitalized in some cases.
The culprit is an invading organism that often spreads invisibly, contaminating work and living spaces. Attempts to kill it can often cause it to spread if proper procedures aren’t followed.
Unfortunately for building owners and managers, and contractors, this is not the stuff of fiction, but a very real, and often very costly problem. Tens of thousands of lawsuits have been filed over mold-related illnesses, resulting in multi-million dollar settlements and expensive relocation and remediation efforts.
With the right tools, however, mold can be prevented from growing or eliminated before it becomes health-threatening. The key, to use an old adage, is to remember that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Maintenance software solutions with inspection tracking capability make it easy to schedule and perform routine checks of mold-prone areas in facilities. Schedule groups can then be created based on the official mold remediation guidelines provided by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
That way, facilities managers can be sure that proper mold mitigation measures are being taken, and also be able to prove it with a solid book of record if needed. The following are a few critical areas that every facility manager should focus on when creating their mold prevention and detection strategy.
+ Identify the Source Continue reading “How Maintenance Software Can Help Guard Against Toxic Mold”
