The letter S stands for safety and risk management. How safe is you production environment? How do you manage the daily risks? What do you do about “remaining risks”? These are some examples of important questions which are not easy for you to answer. Incidents, Emergency situations, or even calamities that can lead to injury, health hazards and serious environmental damage occur more often than you may think.

Risk management

Operations that fall under the Seveso major accident legislation (Besluit risico’s zware ongevallen (Brzo), Besluit externe veiligheid inrichtingen (Bevi)), or explosion hazards ( ATEX) are legally required to identify the risks of hazardous materials and to minimize and manage these risks. This safety assurance is achieved by implementing a suitable risk management system.

A Safety management system is an integral part of the company risk management programme. For example you can use a H&S management system conform OSHAS 18001 or safety management in line with the Dutch NTA 8620 approach. Both these systems have common elements for example safety policy, management commitment, identification and evaluation of risks and the implementation of organizational or technical risk reduction measures.

Another important aspect for improving the company safety level is the development of a safety culture including the safety awareness of the people. This is facilitated by specific “made to measure” safety awareness training.

Audit in relation to risk management
Auditing is a much used method to measure and demonstrate the effectiveness of the risk management system. In line with the goal for achieving continuous improvement the audit end result is usually an improvement action plan. There are two different types of SHE audit namely the due diligence and the compliance audits.

Due diligence audits: are usually only used prior to the sale or takeover of a business and are primarily designed to provide a global evaluation of a company’s safety, health and environmental risks.

Compliance audits: are carried out in order to establish and make transparent what the level of legal compliance of the operation is. This is required when a company is preparing for ISO or OSHAS standard certification. They are also used to monitor the implementation of internal company specific (Corporate) standards and procedures.

How can we help you?

The preparation and assistance with implementation of certified ISO 9001, 14001 & OSHAS 18001 are the core business of our consultants. We have several experienced safety experts available.

If it is the determination and documentation of safety contours, the carrying out of “quantitative risk analysis” calculations relating to “external safety “ or the explosion safety analysis and associated explosion protection document in line with the ATEX directive. Or even the carrying out of in -house ATEX safety training, our experts have already proven their worth in these areas.

We also have experienced lead auditors available with more than 25 years experience in carrying out audits in different types of industry including the food, chemical and pharmaceutical branches.

Want to try us out? Then please contact one of our consultants for a quick scan of your own operations.