Jul 5, 2021

KP Case Study

First Encounter

When we first met KP identifying their problem was pretty simple. They had had PUWER inspections done by various parties. Their own engineers, health and safety professionals, outside contractors and consultants, all had a hand in the risk assessments.

They had different degrees of success and when we met with them to review their current position, it became clear that they knew they had triumphed in some areas and stalled in others. The main priority was quantifying the success or failure which had not be possible previously because the process had not been managed or controlled in any central place.

We painted a picture of what it would look like to control their process and communicated that the control of the process could only occur once you had command of the records. The most obvious deficiency in their position, as they presented it to us, was that they had many risk assessments in many places. These were managed by different people in different formats and with no way of making informed decisions centrally on and around this risk assessment process.

If there is any lag between finding the issue and actioning it, and perhaps even a decision point where you must balance one option against another, then it becomes very important to have that decision informed in terms of risk.

The Plan

We are a specialist provider of work equipment and industrial machine inspections, but we also stood out from the competition. At the core of our offer to them was a platform, a systemised way of working. At that time it was a very new system still being developed, but it was available and it worked.

We offered KP a vision of how our existing system RiskMach was going to develop, providing a risk based and informative way of working. In the years that followed we worked together to develop it.

We enjoyed great success and identified additional problems RiskMach could solve. The success of this platform comes down to the partnership with KP where we have spoken, listened and adapted to each other. We have continued to honour our vow and invest in the development of a system that we intend will help them to manage their risk based decision making in full.

Outcome

The feedback from KP says RiskMach has already given them the benefit of proper document control over their risk assessment process and essentialised storage and revision control. The next steps that we have discussed, which they are in the process of applying, is going to massively enhance the visibility of this information. Rather than having to look for the records they come to talk to you. That is where we will see the culmination of all the effort that has been made thus far, in developing the relationship between Spiers Engineering Safety and KP Snacks.

Challenging Moments

Any change will meet resistance. KP have evolved their way of working in response to our advice and our processes. When they came to us they had a good and sincere spirit but no real fixed way of working. We wrote out not just a puwer inspection document, but a management process that they could apply across their business.

We provided them with flow charts to demonstrate decision making and user requirement specifications to build into their supply chain, whilst training around the PUWER and RiskMach system. All of this coming together allowed them to take the steps towards what is now a very deliberate strategy to manage their industrial machine related risks under PUWER.

Looking to The Future

Spiers are continuing to work with KP Snacks to improve their processes and reduce their risk in the context of machine safety.