Occupational Health & Safety in procurement

here are many categories of PPE, many types and brands within each category, and many regulations which govern which must be used for particular applications.

In today’s business, occupational health and safety is required to interact with the various business functions and processes to achieve an organisation’s objectives. Consequently, the management of a business must coordinate production, purchasing and health and safety to ensure that the right materials and equipment are available at the right time and in the right place to contribute to achieving a critical part of productivity.
Often the consideration of the impact of the procurement and purchasing decisions on health and safety in the workplace is ignored, especially where the “Buyer” is price focused. For example, does the equipment or machine meet thew OHS legal requirements (re. Guarding, construction standards, noise levels, etc.)? Does the PPE procured meet a related product SANS or other standard, the fitting and size requirements, etc.)?

Question: Has the “Buyer” been given a specified standards guide in OHS terms for the procurement of the items on the order request form? Why not?.....because the OHS requirement aspects are being ignored.
Here are some of the major factors that interweave purchasing with health and safety in the workplace:

• The application of legislative requirements, safety and health standards, facility safety codes and standards, and the safety considerations (risk based) in services, production, construction and manufacturing workplace environments.
• The purchase of equipment and machinery, which is designed, constructed, easily maintained and suitably guarded in health and safety terms to avoid incident occurrences.
• The purchase and control of hazardous substances, including procedures for obtaining data on new substances and raw materials and the impact to achieve the necessary controls for the safe handling, use and disposal requirements in the workplace.
• The purchase of safety equipment, including personnel protective equipment, which is manufactured to standards to comply with the job-task risk assessment mitigation requirements.
• The eventual disposal of equipment, materials, scrap and wastes with the application of hazard evaluation, risk assessment, safe wastes disposal and pollution control.

Contracting work and services in compliance with standards (e.g. OHS Act, COID Act, Construction Regulations) and the understanding of the legal liability potential. (e.g. OHS Act Section 37(2) liability agreement signed?).
The communication of information concerning health and safety, quality, productivity, the environment and cost (and loss) control throughout the organisation.
The purchasing order form is one of the most critical instruments in procurement, purchasing and materials management. If constitutes an order to buy and an acceptance on the part of the supplier completes the contract. This status as a legal document makes the purchase order one of the most effective health and safety controls since both general terms and specific clauses (if included) can be used to assure compliance with legislative standards and for the specified requirements to manage the various hazards in the workplace. These standards and requirements may be related to machine guarding, ventilation, confined spaces, electrical equipment and so on.
It is therefore vitally important the purchasing function (staff) interact with the health and safety functions (personnel) to ensure a full and complete awareness of legal and health and safety standards requirement within the purchasing and procurement processes.
In this regard, the purchasing function staff needs to be provided with the following information from the workplace’s health and safety professional:

• Information about the health and safety hazards for which engineering specification can or must be required. For example, control of noise by engineering controls rather than by personal protective equipment use.
• Information about tools and equipment that can cause injury if not designed or constructed properly. For example, machine V-belt drives without guards or equipment without emergency stop or lockout buttons and any ergonomic considerations.
• Information about national legislation (e.g. OHS Act or MHS Act and their regulations), the National Standards (e.g. the SANS and other standards (ISO)) to the Provincial Government notices and laws and Local Authority By-law requirements and standards.
• Company-based OHS requirements and standards also must/need to be followed, especially where Items, like when a specific risk assessed mitigation control standard type of PPE, must be procured, for example.

Where there is an effective liaison established between the health and safety department staff and the purchasing department staff, any questions or need for clarification will/should result in a communication to clarify the necessary item controls description (e.g. safety and/or engineering controls) or purchasing standard requirements that should be written on the purchase order form.

In terms of occupational health and safety in procurement and purchasing, both the Buyer and the Health and Safety Professional must fully appreciate the general societal changes, work attitudes and general conditions of the workplace itself before any procurement programme can achieve maximum effectiveness and so they must realise the importance of working together towards promoting a safe working environment condition and the organization’s basic goals. 

This series, by Leighton Bennett of Benrisk Consulting, is written with occupational health and safety officers in mind. He can be contacted at +27 (0)83 325 4182, benrisk@mweb.co.za.