Tracking project ergonomics and safety performance in the South African mining industry

摘要

The South African mining industry has a long history of effective tracking and mitigation of safety and ergonomics-related risks. A substantial amount of work has been completed assessing the role of the human operator in South African mines. In contrast, the tracking of project performance in the areas of ergonomics and safety risk mitigation has been less than satisfactory, with the logging of lessons and initiatives being largely ineffective. The consequence of this anomaly has been that mining projects are frequently ineffectively and inaccurately reporting on both ergonomics and safety related hazards and associated risks in the expansion project environment. Four projects were recently reviewed over a six month period and key performance indicators (KPI's) for safety management, including project requirements for ergonomics related hazard identification risk assessment (HIRA) were considered. Findings demonstrated that current project site controls are inadequate and ineffective in ensuring compliance with site requirements for use of personal protective equipment (PPE), safe work at heights, safe operation of hand tools and elimination of unacceptable body postures on project sites. Project sites appear to be less effective in managing the 'day-to-day' safety requirements stipulated by the South African mining industry. In addition, this paper will cover some of the new strategies and innovations currently in use on mining expansion projects in the South African mining industry, including initiatives related to behavioural based safety (BBS). Many of the key safety and ergonomics-related risks identified during selected expansion project reviews have demonstrated that ergonomics and safety is still largely overlooked and not given the same priority when compared to other project metrics, such as cost and schedule. An assessment of the efficacy of the new strategies will be included in the summary findings of this paper with a view to improving the tracking of safety performance for projects in the mining industry.