There are three inexorable truths we’ve found after servicing and monitoring lifting equipment for nearly 25 years:
- The most consistent way to avoid a safety incident is for staff to learn how to recognise signs of failure during the Lifting Equipment Inspection Training (not replacing a periodic inspection by a third-party)
- Many incidents are caused by equipment being unintentionally used incorrectly
- There is an absolute, proven, and measurable link between people understanding what a failure looks like and how to use the equipment properly.
Our job is to ensure every lifting equipment is safe – and that’s something we take seriously.
The Number 1 Cause of a Safety Failure
We have found that the number one cause of a safety failure is the same for almost every asset on almost every site: Unintentional Human Error!
For example:
- Problem: Wrapping the load chain of a lever hoist around a load and back-hooking it will cause an equipment failure, and people can get hurt.
- This is a simple operating mistake that are easy to make but can have devastating consequences
- Solution: A chain sling is designed to have a chain wrapped in that way. Perhaps your chain sling is offsite for repairs and the lever block was used as a temporary measure, but members of the team weren’t aware of the difference.
The Importance of Training Your Team
Another important element is training your team to recognise the early indicators for asset failures.
- Problem: The scheduled periodic inspections we provide are important, and something we pride ourselves on delivering. But we’re only seeing that equipment a handful of times each year. Which means – if something happens, something is damaged not long after we see it, that asset will likely still be in use until our next visit, which might not be for a few months.
- Solution: The best way to keep your sites safe is for your people to understand what a safe and unsafe asset looks like – and the impact their choices have on that piece of equipment’s longevity.
- That’s why we prioritise training people whenever we’re on site. It’s something we include as part of our service.
- Safety training measures (including comprehensive, illustrated pre-start guides) are also offered for every piece of equipment we service through our asset management software – something we make available to our clients to use.
Did you Know we Offer Standalone Training?
We also offer – and recommend – standalone training. Taking your team off the tools for an hour or two might sound counter-productive, but it’s a lot cheaper in the long run than facing an avoidable safety incident – or fatality.
The key features of this training:
- This training is delivered on your site, using your assets
- We value education and invest heavily in keeping our team up to date with the latest legislation and Standards
- We work alongside asset manufacturers with workshop visits for detailed inspections of the manufacturing process, as a key step in understanding where and how failures are most likely to happen
- All training is supported by the wealth of data we have in our asset management system
How we Track Safety Data
We’re fortunate to have the backing of our asset management software Radify Pro. We use the system to track safety data from the hundreds of thousands of assets we service across South-East Queensland, Northern NSW and the Northern Territory every year. Additionally, we track the history and servicing schedule for each asset under our care.
What does this mean?
With more than 230,000 pieces of data coming in every year, we can accurately pinpoint which component of an asset is most likely to fail well before the asset shows any sign of a problem.
With that insight, we can give our clients a precise summary of what to expect from every asset on their site, based on learnings we’ve taken from thousands of comparable assets in the region.
Our Top Priority
Keeping people safe is our top priority, which is why we extend the education we give our team to help our clients keep their team safe too. If we can do something to help even one more person go home safe each day, that’s worth it in our book.