Underground

Last week we went to Wessels Mine for a Underground visit. We started off by sorting out all PPE requirements, and headed towards the shaft to dive. We were crammed in with 10 other people in a cage smaller than a standard lift. Once underground, I was well impressed with the underground environment everything was as clean as it could be and demarcated.

We went on a tour of the workshop areas and then to one of the refuge chambers which has a pipe inside that can release compressed air to create higher pressure inside to keep unwanted fumes, gasses and flames away from the door area as well as to help seal the door when closed.

Then we proceeded to one of the Murray and Roberts Mining areas where we observed a Drilling machine and a Roof bolter. As we moved from area to area specialized Haulers and Front end loaders passed us on a continuous basis, due to the clearly demarcated walkways and warning sirens we where always out of the firing line.

This was only a 2 hour visit, and this week we hope to spend some more time there, and we have a VFL (Visible Felt Leadership) visit underground with the Wessels Steering team.

I'll post the Photos of the visit later day or tomorrow for all to see.

Behaviour Based Solutions BHP Billiton

We are now in the BIT (Behaviour Intervention Technologies) Phase of our Development Programme.

I've always been interested in this department since starting at IRCA, and time finally came to find out what is actually going on in the department.

On Sunday the 28th of June we packed our bags to leave for Hotazel in the Northern Cape.

It took us about 6 hours to get here, and when we entered the Mini Guest house our food was already waiting for us on the table, thanks to Luan from BIT's good arrangements!

Week one started off slowly due to the phase the process was in and we also had to familiarise our self with all the people, area and how everything works here. But the two significant experiences of the week was observing employee training on BBS which I thought was presented very well by the Process Champion. And The reopening of Wessels Underground Mine due to the shut down of production for a month.

Week two all the formalities had to take place like Medicals and Induction. Between these I stepped in to help Identify critical tasks in different areas and a great way to apply my theory to practice. After identifying I started to populate the info into the BBS software and is currently still busy with the conditions and tasks.

The third week started of at a 100 miles per hour! So much work had to be done, we had to conduct a second perception survey on general mine topics, so we got a chance to visit most of the Mamatwan mining area (Open Pit Mining) and to interact with the workforce to get stuck in behind the culture in the mine. And in between the population had to be continued as well as the survey results had to be calculated of which the result was very interesting and revealed some crucial info needed to start the change process! We also did some observations in between so that we could measure the results that came from the employee observations against ours to get a true reflection as well as to do some needed coaching.

So in week four we have a very good idea where we are, and what we need to do to get to where we want to be! The rest of the week will include VFL's (Visible Felt Leadership visits) more population and observations and hopefully we can visit the Wessels Underground area to get a better idea of what is happening there!

Luan Luus has been our Mentor for the last couple of weeks and I just want to thank him for accommodating us, He has a very effective way of running projects and sharing knowledge and information!

9 June 2009

Once again a lot has happened since the last time I blogged.

To start of, today a lot of preparation and training paid off. I had to present on effective communication skills in the health and safety Representative course IRCA presented this week.

I originally prepared for critical task analysis, then changed to hazard identification and risk assessments and finally had to prepare for effective communication to fit in with the course schedule. I think whilst preparing for this tab it helped me to effectively communicate the material to the learners.

But on a serious note, it went very well and I was pleased to get positive feedback from the learners during the break! And if you consider that Jaco from the University of the Free state was attending to do an audit on the training (putting a lot of pressure on us) I am well pleased with the result.

Secondly, We have been trained on the Behavior Based Safety process to prep us for the Hotazel project for BHP Billiton. For me this is very exiting because I'm very interested in this field. The understanding I got from it was, it is a process to create a safety culture or to improve on it. I am very sure though that it is not as easy as it sounds! But if you listen to the successes the BIT department has already had, it makes it difficult not to believe in it. I'm also very excited to work such a dynamic and passionate team.

Last but not least, We have been tasked with doing a MQA Skills programme, we are currently busy doing the feasibility and the costing of the programme. This is a great opportunity to show our worth and be financially productive

so to put it in perspective, a lot has been done but a lot more is on it's way!

02 April 2009

Since the last time I blogged a lot has happened!

To start with we attended a course called RCAT
which deals with root cause analysis techniques. This was presented by one of the mentors, Wim Nortier, and it was a very beneficial exercise. I cant wait to use this tool in the work environment it will be a great asset to any investigation.

After the course we were given much needed time to finish our assignments due to interviews that needed to be conducted at the office. This was a bit tricky because I found that the questions was a bit generic, but nothing too serious. At least it is done and out of the way!

This week our days was split into two by doing training observations in the mornings until 12:00
and then working on our health and safety system implementation for the rest of the day.

I learned a lot during this observation exercise and it refreshed a lot of info that I have already learnt. Still I would say you can only learn so much from an observation due to the fact that every persons presentation style will differ due to personality differences. So the next step will be taking that, that I have learned and combining it with my own personal skills and practice practice practice!!!

We have seen a lot of progress with the system and I am sure we are on the right track, but somehow it is still difficult putting different ideas, different perceptions in one format. A lot of this still comes down to perceptions and there is no written formal way of doing it, But I know we are being lead in a direction and I hope we can get there!

To sum it up all is well, I'm still excited as ever and I'm leaving the office with a happy, grateful feeling and very eager to see what the future holds!

Wesley if you are reading this, CONGRATUALIATIONS with your baby girl, All the best whishes for You, Kira and your wife in your next step of life!

6 March 2009

The last two weeks was spent on two different construction sites, an we were part of a civil construction company, observing their work, pitching in on the labouring duties and doing all kinds of odd jobs.

The main learning experience for me was observing what was going on around us. Absolute chaos!
The work the civil company are doing on both sites is fairly low risk except for the earth moving machinery. Their biggest risks are all the people working around them with no regard for safety and the value of a persons life!

When we got to the first site we waited two hours for our safety induction that was scheduled for 08h00, around the induction room where we waited, I observed many people working unsafely and not following procedures, and the Safety Officer who gave us the induction walked right passed them not even noticing them. So even before I entered the site I realised that people lives were not respected and Safety was purely practiced to comply with legislation, very sad but unfortunately this is the reality!

The most shocking realisation that I got to, is that there was a serious potential for a fatality every day that i was there, You just look around and see people every were working unsafely and can't help to think what if under slightly different circumstances a major injury can happen.

We have now moved on to the second site and I have noticed that there is no proper working safety systems. the only evidence that I could gather was that some people had a safety inducted sticker on their hard hats and that there were some sort of safety consultants on site for about 15 minutes for the whole week. So there is definitely a system but is definitely not working! We as group have not received an induction of a day old. But thank goodness the risks are a lot less but there is definitely still a potential for loss!

So all an all it was a good learning experiance and it strongly motivated me for the future!

20 Feb 2009

Wat a week this has been!

Been very busy with train the trainer and incident investigation! I learned a lot from Joe in train the trainer on how to present. It's now simply putting the gained knowledge into practice.
The incident investigation course we did with Francois Storm was an interesting one because of his training style (very passionate and vocal).

We haven't seen our mentors for a while simply because of both parties being very busy.

Its almost the end of the month, and after my first two months i must say that I'm very grateful to have received all the training, coaching and mentoring. The amount of learning that has taken place is tremendous.

I now know for sure that by completion of this program we will all be competent SHEQ professionals! The program has been thought out well and is also very well managed.

06 Feb 2009

Sjoe!

I'm so glad that this week is over, a lot of up and downs!

I was really stressed about the outcome of this coarse, as i have met ACAP an Oom Paul
before. This is not a easy coarse as Jo confirmed today, its actually one of most challenging and
I can vouch for that.

All in all i came out OK, it would have been better if i concentrated a bit more in
the test i must say, but at the end of the day I passed with a CUM LAUDE.

I want to thank Oom Paul for sharing his knowledge, passion and experience if it was not for him, I think i still wouldn't of had a clue about the Common Audit Protocol.

I hope everyone rests out properly, I think we all need it.