When it is needed
Suitable for disputes over workplace preparation, authorisation for an operation and the use of a work permit or process sheet.
What we examine
- The operation considered and its process sequence.
- Diagrams of the workplace, access routes, danger zones and equipment placement.
- Documents on preparation, performance and supervision of specific work.
Materials to prepare
- Description of the brief and boundaries of the operation examined.
- Work permits, orders, process sheets and work execution plans.
- Documents on actual crew composition and allocation of functions.
- Site photographs and information about protective equipment used.
Sample questions
- Which actions and protective measures did the process described provide for?
- Did the described site preparation procedure suit the nature of the hazardous factors?
- Did the specified guarding and access restrictions allow contact with the danger zone to be prevented?
- Are there contradictions between the brief, process sheet and actions actually recorded?
- Which circumstances need additional substantiation by primary documents?
Build a set of questions →
How the work is carried out
- We will identify the operation examined and its applicable technical requirements.
- We will compare the planned procedure, authorisation documents and factual materials.
- We will prepare a step-by-step description of alignments, discrepancies and their technical significance.
Result
A written examination of how specific work was organised, with a table of checked operations and grounds for findings.
What affects the conclusions
Analysis uses requirements applicable to the object and event period. Findings on compliance with specific technical requirements do not replace legal assessment of liability.
Frequently asked questions
Do you check the entire plant?
The subject is normally limited to a site, operation or episode. The overall occupational safety management system is a separate brief.
Are documents from before the incident needed?
Yes. Instruction and process sheet versions in force during the relevant period, together with information about their changes, are particularly important.
Checking a protective measure at a particular operation stage
Work organisation is usefully considered by stages. For each stage, identify the action performed, location, equipment, intended protection method and information source. The general existence of an instruction does not automatically show how the operation considered was organised.
The comparison separately records the measure required by documents and data on its actual condition. This may be guarding, an interlock, restricted access, worker interaction arrangements or another intended protective method. If actual condition is known only from a later inspection, changes after the event are taken into account.
Which questions make the check specific
- At which stage did the hazardous factor considered arise?
- Which measure was intended specifically for that stage?
- Which materials substantiate its presence and condition?
- Which actions and interactions are reflected in the work permit or process sheet?
- What is the technical significance of the established discrepancy?
The result may be a step-by-step table: action, requirement, factual data, discrepancy and its effect on the explanation being checked. If documents are insufficient, the unresolved question and material needed to answer it are stated instead of an assumption.
Documents and recordings relevant to the operation are supplied for examination, rather than an organisation's entire unselected archive. Appendices and versions in force during the period considered must nevertheless be preserved. Assessment of technical circumstances helps check findings about specific work and does not replace the powers of a commission, supervisory body or court.
If a process sheet provides for several ways of performing an operation, the materials identify the variant relevant to the event considered. Actual actions cannot be assessed solely against a layout for a different workplace or equipment. A moved guard, changed tooling and altered action sequence are recorded with their information source: this enables checking whether the intended protection method remained in place at the specific moment of work.
