Risk Assessment Before Purchasing and Launching New Equipment

Equipment Risk Assessment Before Purchase: From Statistics to a Systematic Approach

Reducing workplace injury rates often comes down to non-obvious factors. Even with a developed risk assessment system, standard operating procedures, and daily monitoring, incidents can still occur. Irina Klimanova, Head of Industrial Safety at Rosatom Fiberglass, shares her experience in identifying the root causes of such incidents. The analysis showed that a significant portion of micro-injuries and near-misses were related to the unsafe design or location of recently installed equipment.

This observation became the starting point for implementing an equipment risk assessment procedure at the procurement and installation stage. The speaker explains how the transition from a reactive to a proactive approach not only reduced the number of incidents but also optimized the commissioning process for new capacities.

Implementation Stages: From Idea to a Working Tool

Implementing the new procedure took about six months and required a systematic approach. Initially, the team developed several checklists for different types of equipment, but practice showed that this complicated the work and confused employees. As a result, the form was unified, which significantly simplified the process.

• Preliminary Assessment: The procurement department requests documentation from the supplier (manuals, passports, diagrams). A commission involving the HSE department analyzes this data to identify potential risks. This allows adjustments to be made to the technical specifications even at the development stage of non-standard equipment (e.g., adding guards or emergency buttons).
• On-site Assessment: After the equipment is delivered to the plant, the commission conducts a reassessment on the production floor to ensure there are no unaccounted risks before launch.
• Unified Action Database: To monitor the elimination of identified risks (an average of 18 – 20 items per equipment unit), an electronic database was created to track the status of corrective actions.

Overcoming Resistance and Results

The presentation details the issue of motivating engineering and technical personnel. At the initial stage of implementing the procedure, there was resistance related to the need to fill out additional documents. The speaker demonstrates by example how the principled position of the HSE department (up to delaying the equipment launch for a month and a half until critical remarks were addressed) helped shape a safety culture and a responsible attitude toward the procedure.

The results speak for themselves: since the procedure was implemented, 43 units of new equipment have been purchased, over 700 corrective actions have been completed, and not a single incident related to the unsafe design of installed units has been recorded.

What you will learn from this webinar:

• How to identify hidden risks in the design of new equipment before its installation?
• What documents should be requested from the supplier for a preliminary risk assessment?
• How to optimize checklists for assessing different types of equipment?
• How to motivate engineering personnel to participate in the risk assessment process at the design and procurement stage?
• How to organize control over the implementation of corrective actions before commissioning the equipment?