University of New South Wales - Human Resources - OHS Hazards

What is Plant?

In essence it includes any machinery, equipment (including scaffolding), appliance, implement or tool and any associated components or fittings. [National Standard for Plant NOHSC:1010(1994)]. Since this is a fairly all encompassing definition, extending to computers and office furniture, it is important to address plant safety issues in a priority order beginning with the highest risk plant.

UNSW has a plant safety policy and program which outlines the key responsibilities for staff to ensure they have a safe system of work in place to protect staff, students, contractors and members of the public from plant and equipment hazards.

In a nut shell this involves the following:

Design Phase

The OHS Regulation places a huge emphasis on designing safe plant and equipment. This is the opportunity to get it right and is a critical step in the elimination of hazards into the workplace. Detailed analysis of potential hazards must be undertaken at this early planning phase. It is much more cost effective to design safely at the start than try and retro fit safety controls once the equipment is manufactured. Information on the risk assessment must be passed along the chain; in this case to the manufacturer.

Some plant designs need to be registered with WorkCover NSW. (This requirement is unlikely to affect any staff at UNSW as it is for design of items such as boilers and pressure vessels (meeting specific hazard criteria), gas cylinders, various types of cranes including gantry, tower, bridge, and mobile cranes, lifts, hoists, pre fabricated scaffolding, vehicle hoists and amusement devices).

Manufacture Phase

As with design it is another opportunity to ensure the plant is manufactured in such a way that hazards are not introduced into the workplace. Again detailed analysis of any potential hazards need to be conducted at this stage. Information on the risk assessment and operating manuals must be passed on to the installer/commissioner/user.

Installation/Commissioning

It is important to ensure that the introduction of the plant/equipment into a particular area does not introduce any hazards. Issues such as the proposed location for the plant, power or other essential services requirements, space, extraction systems, access for cleaning, maintenance. Also aspects such as failure of any associated equipment or services to the plant need to be included in contingency planning eg. :

What emergency provisions are in place to cater for failure of a power supply to a freezer?
What engineering controls are in place if a ventilation system fails to equipment that could generate hazardous fumes/vapours?
How is unauthorised access to the plant, or the room containing the plant, prevented?

Purchasing and Acquisition

Before new plant is introduced into the workplace either through purchasing, leasing, donation etc, the person introducing the plant needs to be confident that it is safe. The onus should be placed on the manufacturer / supplier /donator to provide evidence to us that the plant will not introduce hazards to the workplace.

There is a checklist/risk assessment form that should be sent to the manufacturer for completion prior to purchase. The same checklist can be used even if the manufacturer or supplier is overseas. The overseas manufacturer/supplier should provide evidence that the plant has been manufactured to a standard equivalent (or better) than an Australian Standard. UNSW has an OHS Purchasing Guideline which should also be referred to for more information.

Use of the Plant

Before any work is conducted, a risk assessment must be undertaken on the plant and the task involving the plant. The standard UNSW Risk Assessment Form should be used to document this risk assessment. A standard operating procedure should then be developed incorporating the safe controls identified in the risk assessment. This should also include information such as: custodian of the plant, authorisation to use the plant, training or certification by plant/equipment operators, emergency provisions, clean up procedures, decommissioning etc.

The plant/equipment should be added to the local plant and assets register and details of it's future inspection and testing program logged in the local Inspection, Testing and Monitoring plan. See also UNSW Inspection, Testing and Monitoring Procedure.

Maintenance/Cleaning

The plant should be made safe, by isolating all energy sources to it, before any maintenance or cleaning is carried out.

Decommissioning and Dismantling

Only people who have detailed knowledge of the plant (and could thus be classified as 'competent') should decommission and dismantle the plant. The item can then be removed from the plant and equipment register and the local inspection and testing plan.

Specific Items of Plant - Additional Special Requirements

There are other specific requirements and risk control measures depending on the type of plant eg.

Plant under pressure;
Plant with moving parts;
Powered mobile plant;
Plant with hot and cold parts;
Electrical plant and plant exposed to electrical hazards;
Plant designed to lift or move;
Industrial robots and other remotely energised equipment;
Lasers;
Scaffolds

Certain Plant Items Required to be Registered

If any of the items below are present on property over which UNSW has control, then that item of plant is required to be registered with Workcover.

Boilers according to the criteria in AS 4343-1999
Certain Pressure vessels according to the criteria in AS 4343-1999
Lifts, Amusement devices, Tower cranes, Building maintenance units
Concrete placing units (truck mounted with boom)
Mobile cranes with a safe working load greater than 10 tonnes

At UNSW, generally, such items are infrastructural items and thus Facilities Management has responsibility for this registration task. However, registration responsibility for plant and equipment "owned" by a school or centre, which is not considered part of building infrastructure AND meets this definition, rests with the head of the school/centre.

Record Keeping
There are certain items of plant which require records of inspection, testing and alterations etc to be kept. (Similar items of plant to those that require registration).

Training
All staff involved at some stage in the life cycle of plant from design through to dismantling are required to have received plant safety training.

Certificates of Competency for the Operation of Plant
Certain items of plant require a Certificate of Competency (obtainable from Workcover) before it can be used. Item 5.3.3 in the UNSW Plant and Equipment Procedure details all such plant. Records of certificates of competency should be kept by local area. See also OHS Training procedure.

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