Conducting Facility-Wide Health & Safety Audit at Bioprocessing Facility
Challenge
The client, a biofuel company, requested a facility-wide Health & Safety (H&S) audit of their biorefinery operations (ethanol production). The client requested a 3rd party review of their H&S management system, site-specific compliance with their management system, and general H&S regulatory compliance at the site.
Solution
The project began with an opening meeting between Antea Group and the client to review audit criteria and objectives, explain the audit process, and review/confirm site schedules, personal protective equipment (PPE) requirements, and other facility-specific considerations. From there, Antea Group conducted a facility walkthrough, including significant process areas, raw material, waste storage, and other areas of potential H&S impact. During the walkthrough, meetings and interviews were held with key personnel and employees.
Antea Group then conducted a review of all programs, inspection records, and training history to investigate the compliance of on-site operations and documents. A review was also done of incident investigations and safety climate survey comments along with conversations with management and employees to evaluate safety culture and delve into reasons why injuries were more frequent in certain years.
Result
As a result of the audit, no Priority 1 (high) findings were found; however, eleven Priority 2 (medium) findings and four Priority 3 findings were documented. To help the client address the findings, best practices were identified and suggestions for each of the findings were provided in the final report.
Following the completion of the site audit using Antea Group's audit protocol, the final report of the findings was created and presented to the client. The report provided the protocols used for the audit, a summary of relevant regulations, and a listing of findings with associated recommendations for improvements along with photos where appropriate.
Finally, a post-audit and report meeting was held to review the findings and clarify any questions the client had.
