Safety Training
The Safety Organizational structure has seen major changes in 2018. The department grew from five safety inspectors to 22 safety inspectors. The title of ‘Safety Inspectors’ also changed to ‘Safety Officers’ highlighting the focus on safety as a means to assisting and helping ensure a safe and healthy workplace. A competency matrix has been developed for 22 roles against 28 key HSE skills, and competency gaps have been identified for those 22 roles, as well as the required training to bridge these gaps. The company will build on the HSE competency matrix to include all roles at Qatar Steel in the future.Qatar Steel’s Life-Saving Rules were designed to include 11 rules in total. In Q1 of 2018, Qatar Steel rolled out an intensive communication campaign to spread awareness of the 11 Life-Saving Rules. Communication in the form of banners, outdoor stands and handouts were developed in 4 different languages taking into consideration the organizations diverse workforce. Upon completion of the awareness raising campaign, a Life-Saving Rules committee was established to process any occurrences of violations of the Rules.Various safety training interventions were initiated ranging from Working at Heights, Confined Space Entry and Rescue, LOTO, HIRA and Crane Operation among others.
Lock-Out and Tag-Out
Qatar Steel introduced a positive isolation system named Lock- Out and Tag-Out, which replaced the previous Red Flag system used. COTO is designed to strengthen and safeguard maintenance jobs. Despite initial technical challenges, a decision was made by leadership to implement the system, placing employees’ well-being and safety at the forefront.
Permit to Work
Qatar Steel upgraded its permit to work system to take it from a paperwork exercise to an impactful system ensuring that work is recorded and conducted in a safe, coordinated and consistent manner. This was done by making site risk assessment essential for the start of
work as well as ensuring that both the issuing and executing agency are involved in site verification before and after the work is done. Moreover, execution supervision is required at all times in the new system to ensure work is executed in a safe manner and process
steps are complied with. The next step in improving our PTW system is to implement an Electronic PTW system which is currently being considered for implementation.
Risk Assessment
Qatar Steel revamped the way that risks are assessed in the plants by shifting from a compliance-based process to a risk-based one with a clear process flow and roles & responsibilities. The revamped system is aimed at effectively and sustainably reducing the risk in the field beyond the documentation of hazards and risks. Qatar Steel trained relevant employees on the new risk assessment system and conducted coaching sessions with each production department to guide them through live examples of Hazard Identification & Risk Assessment (HIRA), Job Safety Analysis (JSA), and Man-Machine Interface (MMI) to ensure risks in the field are effectively mitigated. In 2018, to monitor and control the probable loss of natural gas and to identify the source of massive fire incidents, Qatar Steel’s gas leak detection station identified 22 leaks across 11 locations as part of a quantitative risk assessment.
Contractor Safety Management
Qatar Steel put together a comprehensive system to manage contractors, not only during job delivery, but across the entire value chain from pre-selection to contract signature, training, execution and feedback. The system is equipped with a pre- qualification scoring mechanism that will evaluate contractors during the tendering stage.
Behavioural Observation Program
The program has been implemented throughout QS and also forms part of KPI’s for management employees. It is continuously monitored to identify trends and to improve employees attitude towards HSE. It has formed a significant part in the reduction of incidents that has been taken place in QS by allowing QS to be pro-active rather than re-active.
Executive Safety Tours:
In 2018, as part of an initiative to showcase leadership’s commitment to safety at Qatar Steel, Heads of Sections and Managers conducted bi-monthly walkabouts giving them the opportunity to engage with employees in the shop floor in a positive, constructive and motivating manner.
Safety Governance:
Qatar Steel developed a robust governance structure that links top management to shop floor in a structured manner, with clear reporting lines and mechanisms. The purpose of the upgraded governance structure is to drive messages, concerns and progress from the bottom-up, and cascade decisions top-down while ensuring an effective process. The governance system is equipped with a set of leading and lagging KPIs and dashboards to measure and monitor safety performance in an effective, structured and sustainable manner to drive decision making.
