HEALTH & SAFETY
KEEPING EMPLOYEES SAFE
ANT TELECOM
WHAT ARE THE RISKS OF NOT RESPONDING
TO A CRITICAL ALARM IN TIME?
protected, as well as train employees on how
to deal with the risks. With a critical alarm
system in place, staff can feel confident in
the knowledge that their welfare is being
monitored so in the event of an incident on
site, it will be acknowledged and rectified
as quickly as possible. In order to make this
a reality, businesses must therefore ensure
that the workforce fully understands the
critical alarm response processes that are in
place.
Contribution from Klaus Allion, Managing
Director at ANT Telecom
For any organisation that operates within
a high-risk environment, critical alarms are
a fundamental component to assure the
safety of staff and continuity of operations.
The manufacturing industry, in particular,
is known to be a high-risk environment as
workers typically have to deal with heavy-
duty machinery and potentially hazardous
materials. This environment can be
especially dangerous for lone workers who
perform their roles without supervision from
other colleagues.
By law, employers must control any
potential risks to injury or health that could
arise in the workplace by undertaking
risk assessments, provide information
about potential hazards and how staff are
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PECM Issue 38
But what are the risks if a critical alert is not
responded to in good time? While alerts are
useful, unless critical alarms are managed
and responded to efficiently, they are of little
use to an organisation in terms of keeping
employees safe and ensuring machinery
continues to function at an optimum level.
Inadequate alarm management and
poor processes can lead to a number of
consequences for organisations. If an
employee is injured on site and requires
emergency assistance, the time it takes to
respond could be the difference between
life and death and could mean the individual
is left with life-changing injuries.
By failing to respond appropriately to critical
alarms or failing to put measures in place to
keep staff as safe as possible, significant fines
could be imposed by the Health and Safety
Executive (HSE). Not only can these fines
be financially damaging, the subsequent
reputational damage can also be severe.
There is also a likelihood that organisations
will also be faced with wasted time, product
and money if machine alerts are not dealt
with in a timely manner. For example, an
alarm on a food production line could be
alerting to faulty temperature regulation.
If the alarm is responded to and resolved
efficiently, the quantity of spoiled produce
could be minimal. However, if there is
a delay in acknowledging the alert and
performing a subsequent fix, the fault
could escalate and the amount of wasted
food could rapidly increase. In a worst-
case scenario, if the entire production line
has to be stopped or the building has to
be evacuated due to safety concerns, the
knock-on effect in terms of time and money
could be significant.
In any high-risk environment, incidents
will occur but by deploying a combination
of appropriate technology and processes,
companies can effectively safeguard their
operations and staff and mitigate risks as
much as possible.
www.anttelecom.co.uk