Plant Awareness Demo Day

    

Last week, we began hosting the first of many Plant Awareness demonstration days held at one of our MoJ projects with our client Kier Group. The set up involved utilising a large and clearly marked area of site to position one of our 20 tonne excavators in the middle of this safety zone. This task was accompanied by several Health & Safety signage with the ‘Thumbs up’ graphic placed in and around the area to communicate the objectives.

   

Members from various departments of the Kier workforce, attended the Plant Awareness workshop, which was facilitated by our HSQE Director, Jonathan Milnes and Operations Director, Richard Mitchell. The process began with a group induction, followed by a 360 walk around the excavator stopping at several points to flag any key points to note. This was then followed by offering each attendee the opportunity to sit inside the cab area and go through a step-by-step mirror and camera check to test and find where all the blind spots lurked.

     

     

The response from Kier’s workforce was very positive and allowed anybody to voice questions and concerns at any point during the demonstration. It was acknowledged how difficult it is to maintain full vision when machines are in operation, and how a person’s proximity is not always detectable with the onus being on the individual to communicate with the driver a simple ‘thumbs up’ approach to ensure it is safe to pass.

We look forward to conducting further Plant Awareness demonstrations across our sites and hearing further feedback from our clients. So far, we are delighted with the high level of engagement from all.