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Electronic incident reporting, management system touted as best practice

16th December 2016

By: Ilan Solomons

Creamer Media Staff Writer

  

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For many years, line managers and safety staff in the South African mining industry have tried to understand the relationship between incidents, minor injuries, lost-time injuries, serious injuries and fatal injuries.

In the early 1980s, ‘loss control’ was the buzzword in mine safety and the Frank Bird triangle was the benchmark in terms of the ratios of and the relationship between different injury classifications.

The mining industry soon determined that the 600/30/10/1 ratio, as indicated by Frank Bird, was not suitable for local conditions, says platinum miner Royal Bafokeng Platinum safety, health, environment and risk (SHER) manager Philip Coetzer, emphasising, moreover, that, “through the years, each mining company – in fact, each safety manager – tried to develop their own ratio triangle”.

Coetzer believes that, now, as then, what is really required is to establish which hazards employees were exposed to on a particular day.

“If there was an unwanted event that did not result in an injury, we still need to know of it and put mechanisms in place to stop it from happening again,” he remarks. Coetzer says that a mine should be able to answer the following questions: did everybody report all incidents and, if so, how will the mine manage this vast amount of data so that it becomes management information that it can respond to and manage effectively?

He highlights that any manager that knows of a hazard and the associated risk will, as a reasonable person, act to avert the harm that will result if this risk materialises.

However, Coetzer laments that it is known that there are incidents happening that are not being reported by mines. “Through the years, we have discovered that even some injuries are not reported. We have also seen that incidents that are reported are not effectively managed by safety staff and line supervisors.”

He believes that this is not a case of line supervisors not wanting to manage and close out these incidents, but rather a case of them having “so many issues to handle” that an incident that does not result in any loss does not rank high enough on their priority list to warrant thorough investigation with an effective close-out.

With the high labour numbers reporting to a supervisor, attention is given to an incident that has not resulted in a loss only when there is time available.

Technological Adaptation

However, Coetzer notes that, with computer programs becoming more interactive and with 24/7 Internet connectivity, it is now possible to capture data at any time of the day or night from any place in the world where there is a Web connection.

Data can even be be captured where there is no Internet connection, as, when the Internet-enabled device connects to the Web, the data entered on the device automatically transfers to the designated Web address.

D

evices are also relatively easy and cheap to acquire, with most of the devices that employees have able to connect to the Internet. Thus, each and every employee either has a tool to report an incident or knows somebody that has such a tool.

“The person must just know that he can report an incident online and have access to the website name or a hyperlink to connect to the Web.”

Electronic Reporting in Action

Coetzer highlights that the incident reporting system in use at Royal Bafokeng Platinum is designed so that mine employees only have to know of the system – no access code or any training is required to report an incident in this system. He says that the person reporting the incident also has the choice of remaining anonymous or giving his/her contact details so that the system can respond to the person on the progress during the incident management process.

When the incident is reported, the information is sent immediately to an incident commander who must then allocate it to the relevant line supervisor for action. All of this is online live, and date and time stamps are recorded for every action taken.

The incident is automatically uploaded in the SHER database system and, once the incident has been submitted, the recording and supporting documents cannot be deleted.

Coetzer elaborates that the database automatically generates a unique incident reference number. Within seconds of submitting the incident, the database automatically sends a response to the email address or cellphone number entered as the contact details, or both, stating that the incident has now been recorded in the system with the unique reference number of the incident.

The incident management system then automatically alerts the relevant people required to address the issue. He also notes that there is an escalation facility.

“When the incident is not managed timeously, it gets bumped up to the next level in the line of command. “As the incident management is progressing, the originator is also kept up to date with the progress until such time that the incident is closed out,” Coetzer concludes.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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