Technical Solutions for Ensuring Safety at Height

From Improvisation to a Systematic Approach: The Evolution of Safety at Height

Ensuring safety when working at height is one of the most acute problems at manufacturing enterprises. Often, employees are forced to use structural elements not designed for this purpose, such as pipelines or instrument racks, for fall protection. In such cases, the safety margin of the attachment is unknown, and the risk of falling remains critically high. During the webinar, Olga Kudryavtseva, Head of the HSE, Industrial Safety and Civil Defense Department at Poliom LLC, shares a practical case of transitioning from formal compliance with rules to the implementation of reliable stationary anchor systems.

The speaker analyzes the situation using the example of a small enterprise (about 350 employees), where an annual occupational risk assessment revealed many areas with a high risk of falling: railway overpasses, pitched roofs, dozens of measuring instruments, flare stacks, and floodlight masts. The presentation shows in detail how the awareness of the problem led to a large-scale project to equip workplaces with stationary anchor points.

Equipment Selection: Balancing Price, Reliability, and Sanction Risks

A key stage of the project was choosing the manufacturer of the anchor systems. The speaker demonstrates by example how the analysis of market offers was conducted. Due to the geopolitical situation and sanction risks, foreign brands (Honeywell, Tractel) had to be abandoned, despite their high quality and convenience.

The choice narrowed down to two Russian manufacturers: Venta Pro and High Safety. The comparison took into account not only the price but also the simplicity of the design, the presence of fall indicators, the number of allowed users per line, and the warranty service conditions. As a result, the choice was made in favor of equipment that, despite a slightly higher cost and restrictions on self-maintenance during the warranty period, provided greater reliability and ease of use.

The Economics of Safety: Defending the Business Plan and Phased Implementation

The implementation of stationary anchor systems is an expensive project. The total CAPEX according to the consolidated cost estimate amounted to 11.5 million rubles. The presentation details the process of defending the business plan before the shareholders. The main arguments were:

• Risk management: preventing incidents, as 50% of accidents at the enterprise over 10 years were related to falls from height.
• Social responsibility: creating safe working conditions and increasing employee motivation.
• Phased implementation: the ability to distribute costs over time, starting with the most critical areas.
• Savings on contractors: reducing the cost of hiring industrial climbers.

In addition, the installed systems are planned to be used for practical training of workers on the correct use of PPE, which complies with new legislative requirements.

Technical Solutions for Various Production Facilities

The project covers various types of facilities that require specific technical solutions. The speaker demonstrates examples:

• Stationary anchor points: brackets for the safe maintenance of measuring instruments located on tanks and apparatuses.
• Horizontal anchor lines: systems for safe work on pitched roofs (for example, when clearing snow or maintaining ventilation).
• Vertical anchor lines: equipping floodlight masts (10 and 16 meters high) with slider-type systems, which saves electrical personnel from having to constantly reattach a double-lanyard, making the ascent comfortable and safe.

What you will learn from this webinar:

• How to justify to management the need for multi-million investments in stationary anchor systems?
• By what criteria should an anchor line manufacturer be chosen under sanction restrictions?
• How to organize safe work on pitched roofs and floodlight masts?
• Why is it important to consider the usability of fall protection systems to motivate personnel?
• How to implement a project to equip an enterprise with anchor points in stages without stopping production?