Automotive Workshop Planning and design

Automotive Workshop Planning and design

Planning of a layout is important because the organization will stay with it for a long time and rectifying of the mistake in the actual layout could be costly. The mistakes should thus be rectified on the paper before the actual movement of equipment starts (Tompkins, 2006). Some of the factors to consider during planning include size of the station, type of work that outweighs in its function, material, equipment and manpower requirements. Most automotive workshops in Saudi Arabia do not have a good layout plan, actually it is like garage with just one access. 

 
This is the type of layout used for general repairs work. Here, the workshop area is painted with lines to form working bays. The area for each working bay is about 18m2 that makes a good working area to work around a vehicle for general repair works. Each repair bay must have a bench with a vice and certain services like an intercommunication system with the store, welfare facilities, ventilation, air line connections, good lighting, plug points, oil dispenser, inspection light points and access to special tools.

It found that people were confused about the differences between:

  Guidance, Approved Codes of Practice and Regulations

And how they relate to each other.

Guidance

Guidance can be specific to the health and safety problems of an industry or of a particular process used in a number of industries.

                        The main purposes of guidance are:  

■ to interpret helping people to understand what the law says including for example how requirements based on EC Directives fit with those under the Health and Safety at Work Act;

■ to help people comply with the law;

to give technical advice

                        Approved Codes of Practice

Approved Codes of Practice offer practical examples of good practice. They give advice on how to comply with the law by, for example, providing a guide to what is ‘reasonably practicable’. For example, if regulations use words like ‘suitable and sufficient’, an Approved Code of Practice can illustrate what this requires in particular circumstance. Approved Codes of Practice have a special legal status. If employers are prosecuted for a breach of health and safety law, and it is proved that they have not followed the relevant provisions of the Approved Code of Practice, a court can find them at fault unless they can show that they have complied with the law in some other way

                        Regulation

 The Health and Safety at Work Act, and general duties in the Management Regulations, are goal-setting and leave employers freedom to decide how to control risks which they identify. Guidance and Approved Codes of Practice give advice. But some risks are so great, or the proper control measures so costly, that it would not be appropriate to leave employers discretion in deciding what to do about them. Regulations identify these risks and set out specific action that must be taken. Often these requirements are absolute to do something without qualification by whether it is reasonably practicable. 

European law

                         European law

In recent years much of Britain’s health and safety law has originated in Europe. Proposals from the European Commission may be agreed by Member States, who are then responsible for making them part of their domestic law. Modern health and safety law in this country, including much of that from Europe, is based on the principle of risk assessment.

Health and safety regulation

Health and safety regulation

 The Health and Safety regulatory bodies must make a review of health and safety regulation in Saudi Arabia to reduce the hazard in workplace and improve the health and safety legislation.

What health and safety law requires

The Act sets out the general duties which employers have towards employees and members of the public, and employees have to themselves and to each other. These duties are qualified in the Act by the principle of ‘so far as is reasonably practicable’. In other words, an employer does not have to take measures to avoid or reduce the risk if they are technically impossible or if the time, trouble or cost of the measures would be grossly disproportionate to the risk. What the law requires here is what good management and common sense would lead employers to do anyway: that is, to look at what the risks are and take sensible measures to tackle them. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations generally make more explicit what employers are required to do to manage health and safety under the Health and Safety at Work Act. Like the Act, they apply to every work activity. The main requirement on employers is to carry out a risk assessment. Employers with five or more employees need to record the significant findings of the risk assessment.

What is training?

What is training?
 Training means helping people to learn how to do something, telling people what they should or should not do, or simply giving them information. Training isn’t just about formal ‘classroom’ courses and obtaining ‘tickets’.

Why provide health and safety training?

Providing health and safety information and training helps you to:

■ Ensure that people who work for you know how to work safely and without risks to health;

■ Develop a positive health and safety culture, where safe and healthy working becomes second nature to everyone;

■ Meet your legal duty to protect the health and safety of your employees.

How to assess the risks in your workplace:

How to assess the risks in your workplace:

Follow the five steps

 Step 1 Identify the hazards

 First you need to work out how people could be harmed. When you work in a place every day it is easy to overlook some hazards, so here are some tips to help you identify the ones that matter:

■ Walk around your workplace and look at what could reasonably be expected to cause harm.

■ Ask your employees or their representatives what they think. They may have noticed things that are not immediately obvious to you.

■ get some information of how to assess the risks from workplace from the best organization which had a wide experience, such as HSE organization.

  ■ Have a look back at your accident and ill-health records – these often help to identify the less obvious hazards.

■ Remember to think about long-term hazards to health (e.g. high levels of noise or exposure to harmful substances) as well as safety hazards.

Step 2 Decide who might be harmed and how

For each hazard you need to be clear about who might be harmed; it will help you identify the best way of managing the risk. That does not mean listing everyone by name, but rather identifying groups of people. In each case, identify how they might be harmed, in example, what type of injury or ill health might occur. For example, ‘shelf stackers may suffer back injury from repeated lifting of boxes. 

Step 3 Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions

Having spotted the hazards, you then have to decide what to do about them. The law requires you to do everything ‘reasonably practicable’ to protect people from harm. You can work this out for yourself, but the easiest way is to compare what you are doing with good practice. So first, look at what you are already doing, think about what controls you have in place and how the work is organised. Then compare this with the good practice and see if there is more you should be doing to bring yourself up to standard. 

Step 4 Record your findings and implement them

Putting the results of your risk assessment into practice will make a difference when looking after people and your business. Writing down the results of your risk assessment, and sharing them with your staff, encourages you to do this. If you have fewer than five employees you do not have to write anything down, though it is useful so that you can review it at a later date if, for example, something changes.

Step 5 Review your risk assessment and update if necessary

Few workplaces stay the same. Sooner or later, you will bring in new equipment, substances and procedures that could lead to new hazards. It makes sense, therefore, to review what you are doing on an ongoing basis. Every year or so formally review where you are, to make sure you are still improving, or at least not sliding back. Look at your risk assessment again. Have there been any changes? Are there improvements you still need to make? Have your workers spotted a problem? Have you learnt anything from accidents or near misses? Make sure your risk assessment stays up to date.
 

Risk assessment

A risk assessment is an important step in protecting your workers and your business, as well as complying with the law. It helps you focus on the risks that really matter in your workplace – the ones with the potential to cause real harm. In many instances, straightforward measures can readily control risks, for example ensuring spillages are cleaned up promptly so people do not slip, or cupboard drawers are kept closed to ensure people do not trip. For most, that means simple, cheap and effective measures to ensure your most valuable asset – your workforce – is protected. The law does not expect you to eliminate all risk, but you are required to protect people as far as ‘reasonably practicable’. This guide tells you how to achieve that with a minimum of fuss. This is not the only way to do a risk assessment, there are other methods that work well, particularly for more complex risks and circumstances. However, we believe this method is the most straightforward for most organisations.

The State of Workplace Health and Safety in New Zealand

The current trends in the country indicate that it has one chance to make substantive impact on workplace safety and health. Fortunately, the authorities are ready and up to the tasks and are doing all is possible to take this chance and exploit it. At the forefront are the central government and its agencies, which have provided funding, set various targets and reviewed the health and safety system to keep it abreast with international standards (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, 2012). For instance, the government has provided additional health and safety funding to the tune of $37 million over four years with the aim of strengthening and transforming the approaches to the regulation of workplace safety and to increase the capacity and number of frontline health and safety inspectors (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, 2012). This funding has also helped in supporting targeted health and safety initiatives. These funds have really become handy in assisting the government to achieve its goal of reducing workplace serious accidents and harms by 25% by the year 2020 and by 10% by 2016 (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, 2012). The government has also established an independent task force to review its health and safety system and its capacity to remain relevant and serve its purpose. Further, the task force has the mandate to make recommendations on any areas that require improvements.

Recommendations

          Since occupational safety and health is concern for the ever-growing automotive industry, workshop owners and employees should make it their core objective to understand all the health and safety hazards within their workplace and identify the most appropriate strategies by which to curb them. Especially, workers should understand that safety and health hazards are any actions or substances that may cause them injuries. Health and safety hazards include infectious diseases, dangerous chemicals, harmful gases and unprotected, subserviced and faulty machines and plants. A thorough understanding of these health and safety hazards would go a long way in enabling workers and managers of automotive workshops in Saudi Arabia to install and implement the right procedures for emergency situations.

improving communication

Since everything done at the workplace is about communication, workers and their employers should constantly communicate in an effective manner even with regards to safety and health. In fact, quite many researches have shown that as high as 70% of workplace mistakes and accidents are due to poor communication. In other terms, how an organisation communicates horizontally and vertically determines the results of its operations and safety practices and policies

Effects of Safety and Health Problems in Automotive Workshops

the safety and health issues and problems in the automotive workshops in Saudi Arabia have certain positive and negative implications. These effects depend on whether a workshop has effective or ineffective safety and health policies and practices. The first effect of poor workshop safety and health policies and practices in the automotive workshops in Saudi Arabia is reduced productivity. When workshop employees constantly complain of illnesses and injuries, which require sick leave, overall workshop production is reduced. In addition, if an employee is absent due to injuries and illnesses, a replacement is sought to execute his or her duties. In some cases, such a replacement requires training.

Plant and equipment maintenance

Plant and equipment maintenance is the other method by which stakeholders in the Saudi Arabian automotive workshops achieve workplace safety and health. In Saudi Arabian automotive workshops, plant, machine and equipment so that problems are prevented, faults are repaired and to make machines work efficiently. In some workshops, maintenance is a planned program whereas in others, it is done on short notice upon a machine breakdown. There are several reasons for which both types of maintenances are carried out in the workshops. The first reason is for efficient and reliable machines, equipment and plants. Second, there are fewer if any plant or machine breakdown, implying less dangerous contact between man and machinery. The third benefit of maintenance is cost benefits associated with improved productivity and efficiency. Lack of or poor maintenance could also cause additional hazards due to faulty parts, which can only be diagnosed and corrected during maintenance.

               The Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) is one of the agencies that work with other agencies to promote workplace environmental standards and regulations in Saudi Arabia. With other agencies, the PME has the mandate to establish environmental legislations, regulations and standards and to ensure the enforcement of these standards and regulations.  The PME thus seeks to improve the Kingdom’s environmental guidelines and standards to create a world class environmental regulation system. The purpose of this system is to provide protection for both human health and natural ecological systems. The following areas are targeted by these PME standards and guidelines: air standards, water standards, noise standards, waste standards and guidelines, coastal zone management standards and guidelines and environmental impact assessment guidelines.

The Labor and Workmen Law

The Labor and Workmen Law [1969] is the other Saudi Arabian law that regulates. The law came to being following Royal Decree No. M/21 of 15 November 1969). Chapter two of this law deals with labour inspection. According to article 23 of this chapter of the Labour and Workmen Law of 1969, labour inspection should be carried out by skilled and competent inspectors, appointed by the minister of labour.

the Saudi Arabian Occupational Safety and Health Law

the Saudi Arabian Occupational Safety and Health Law, which deals with the Kingdom’s labour law, tackles protection against occupational hazards, major workplace injuries, industrial accidents and health and social services. Just like any other industry in the Kingdom, the automotive sector is expected to comply with these safety and health regulations. For instance, automotive workshops must adhere to chapter one of this section, which covers protection against occupational hazards. According to this sub-section, workshop owners or employers are expected to ensure the workshops are in clean and hygienic condition by providing adequate lighting, clean and potable and washing water among other social and health services.of this section requires workshop employers to ensure that the necessary precautions are taken to protect workers against hazards, occupational diseases, the machinery in use thus ensuring work safety and protection. Importantly, employers are required to post safety and health information at strategic places within and outside workshops. These posts should be made in Arabic or other language that workers understand. It should also be noted that employers are not allowed to deduct employees’ pay or charge them for such services   

workers accident

The table shows different types of accidents occurred for workers in the Kingdom in different regions in the last three years. As shown in these tables, criminal acts, wastes, chemicals, gas explosions and other cause scaused injuries, burns, suffocation, fainting and death in Saudi Arabian automotive workshops in the last three years.

 

Region	Injuries	Deaths	Burns	Suffocation and fainting
Riyadh	14	2	15	20
Eastern	22	3	8	41
Makkah	111	1	17	47
Aseer	3	1	0	10
Al-Madinah	13	2	3	5
Alqaseem	7	0	2	14
Albahah	0	0	2	2
Najran	0	0	1	3
Jazan	1	1	5	1
Tapuk	2	0	2	4
Hail	9	1	3	5
Alioof	3	0	1	2
Northern	0	0	2	0