Page 799 - Xmo Strata - Bulletin Archive

Health, Safety & Environmental Bulletin No 292

8 March 2012

Job Planning and Preparation – An April Focus Topic

Most of you will know the old maxim that “failing to prepare is preparing to fail” and this relates as
much to doing a job properly as it does to doing a job safely.

We have recently invested heavily in resources to produce comprehensive, up-front, detailed site packs
for every job, ensuring every job is planned ahead of time and that we are prepared for any foreseeable
eventuality. These packs include detailed scopes of work, validations, risk assessments and a safe
system of work that is pertinent to that job.

This planning enables us to ensure that we ensure that properly trained and qualified men are allocated
to the work, the materials, plant and labour necessary to complete the job is scheduled to arrive at
appropriate times, and is suitable for the job - reducing waiting time and in some cases, abortive visits.

On larger jobs, our customers often encourage pre-job conference calls or pre-start meetings as part of
their preparation to ensure that the work is conducted to a properly thought-through plan and executed
safely and in a timely fashion.

Best practice demands that before arriving on site you should have a good idea of what will be required
and be mentally preparing how you will be doing the job and what safety precautions you will take.

If a site operative arrived on the first site of the day without site specific paperwork, flat batteries in
their drills, cameras or mobile phones, or with no suitable PPE, for example, that would be a failure of
preparation and may have an implication on job duration and on site exposure hours to risk.

Before you actually start work, the clearance certificate, PASMA checklist, MEWP checklist’ lift plan
and permits to work are all part of your preparation and encourage you to think about, discuss the risks
and agree suitable control measures to minimise risk for everyone on that site.

At the end of every day, take a few minutes to check your vehicle and ask yourself a few questions:

• Have you everything you will need for the next day's work?
• Are all the batteries charged? Waiting on site for the batteries to charge would be a clear failure
of preparation.
• Is the equipment needed in good condition?
• Have you received the paperwork for the job?
• Have you read it and are you prepared?