OBJECTIVE
The permit-to-work system aims to:
- Ensure a systematic and tiered authorisation for hazardous work;
- Enable responsible persons to be aware of all hazardous work conducted, their locations in the workplace and when the work cease;
- Establish a standardised approach with clear individual responsibilities to take all reasonably practicable measures to ensure the task can be carried out safely;
- Enhance supervision of hazardous work with routine monitoring of the work; and
- Provide a visual display (of permit) to clearly identify locations of approved tasks and task durations.
SCOPE
- Applicable to all work carried out by anyone who is not an employee of the organisation’s manufacturing division. This applies to employees of the organisation’s other business units.
- Applicable to hot-work, hazardous work-at-heights (where a person could fall from a height of more than 3 meters) and confined space entry by any employee of the organisation’s manufacturing division.
For work at heights where risks of falling more than 3 metres have been mitigated through adequate and effective edge protection, a permit-to-work may not be required unless the responsible person deemed it should not be exempted
Such work at heights includes:
- Working on a flat roof with a perimeter parapet wall of at least 1 metre in height, and no openings or open sides where a person may fall;
- Working on a mezzanine with safe and proper stair access and effective barricade around the mezzanine perimeter to prevent falls; and
- Working on a mobile elevated work platform with the appropriate PPE anchored to designated anchor points at all times.
RESPONSIBILITY
Authorised Manager is responsible for
- Ensuring the risk assessment has been conducted, reviewed by the internally and finally submitted to EHS for final review;
- Ascertaining that the precautionary or control measures have indeed been implemented as stated in the relevant permit-to-work record before approving the PTW presented by the Supervisor
Contractors / workers are responsible for
- Highlighting any potential hazards to their Supervisors during the application of the PTW.
- Executing the work in accordance to control measures listed in the Risk Assessment and the PTW after the PTW is authorised.
EHS Officer (Safety Assessor) is responsible for
- Developing, implementing and maintaining the PTW system.
- Evaluates the PTW application as a Safety Assessor and conducts site survey within the scope of the PTW system.
Supervisor is responsible for
- reviewing the risk assessment prior to application of the PTW and the work
- initiate the PTW application through the different authorisation levels
- implementing the control measures described in the RA and PTW
- communicate potential hazards and such control measures to the workers
Management is responsible for
- Providing adequate training for all levels of persons involved in the PTW system.
- Appointing suitable and competent persons to carry out their duties in the different levels of authorisation of the PTW system.
DEFINITION
Authorised Manager – the Manager or Supervisor appointed as the competent person to carry out duties of an authorised manager for the PTW system.
PTW (Permit to Work) – a document routed through the permit-to-work system to be endorsed by authorised persons and displayed at the area where the approved work is carried out.
Supervisor – The person who submits the PTW application. He/She directs the work to be undertaken to the workers.
Responsible person – The EHS Officer or the Manager of the person who is supposed to carry out the work. In case of contractors, that person is the EHS Officer or Project Manager of Fujifilm.
Safety Assessor – Usually the EHS Officer, or any such persons deemed to have the competence required to check and verify the safety measures put in place, and whether such measures are sufficient.
Workman – Person performing the work described in the PTW.
PROCEDURE
The RA team shall always consider whether hazardous work can be eliminated first (QEHS-SP-12 Risk Management).
The PTW can only be valid for a maximum of 7 work days, provided the hazards remain the same. A new permit application has to be made after that.
Relevant documents shall be attached as part of the PTW application (e.g., Risk Assessments, relevant course certificates, test certificates, maintenance records, etc).
There must be evidence of competence of persons involved in supervising, evaluating, and carrying out the work in the PTW application.
Any persons involved in the PTW have the right to STOP WORK immediately if in doubt or when they feel that conditions in the workplace have changed and that it has no longer become safe to continue to carry on working.
Department Managers / Supervisors shall ensure that the PTW is properly closed and retained as part of documented information.
Where hazardous work is involved, other PTW forms must be applied together with the main PTW form (QEHS-SP-17 Appendix A, ):
Appendix A1: Permit-to-work Form.
