Online Training Centre Opens You’ve been challenged to start doing risk assessments on your machine designs, but you don’t know where to start. Perhaps you’ve bought a few standards or a book or two, hoping to figure it all out, but you never seem to be able to stay focused long enough to get what you need…
Read MoreISO 13849 – 1 Analysis — Part 1: Start with Risk Assessment
This post was updated 2019-07-24 I often get questions from clients about how to get started on Functional Safety using ISO 13849. This article is the first in a series that will walk you through the basics of using ISO 13849. Keep in mind that you will need to hold a copy of the 3rd edition of ISO 13849 – 1 [1]…
Read MoreWorkplace Risk Assessment – CSA Z1002: Love it, Hate it, Tweak it
The CSA Z1002 TC Needs to Know: Love it, Hate it, Tweak it? We need to know: Do you Love CSA Z1002? Hate CSA Z1002? Does it need some tweaking? The First of Its Kind In 2012, CSA published the first OHS Risk Assessment Standard of its kind: CSA Z1002, Occupational health and safety — Hazard identification and elimination and…
Read MoreCSA Z432 Third Edition Open for Public Review!
CSA Z432, Safeguarding of Machinery, is the basic standard for Canada when it comes to most types of machinery. Only Power Presses and Press Brakes, and Industrial Robots are covered separately in their own standards. CSA Z432 provides guidance on important topics, like: Risk Assessment Risk reduction through the Hierarchy of Controls Guard design requirements…
Read MoreScoring Severity of Injury – Hidden Probabilities
I’ve been thinking a lot about risk scoring tools and the algorithms that we use. One of the key elements in risk is the Severity of Injury. There are hidden probabilities attached to the Severity of Injury scores that are assigned that are not discussed clearly in any of the risk assessment standards that are commonly…
Read MoreRisk Assessment Blunders
Updated 7‑Jul-2014 Recently I read a blog post written by David Cant, called, “Are You Making These Risk Assessment Blunders?”. Writing in the UK, Mr. Cant spoke to some of the common kinds of problems that can occur when employers conduct risk assessments. Many his points are equally applicable to machine building: No Risk Assessment – This seems self…
Read MoreCSA Z432 Safeguarding of Machinery – 3rd Edition
If you build machinery for the Canadian market, or if you modify equipment in Canadian workplaces, you will be familiar with CSA Z432, Safeguarding of Machinery. This standard has been around since 1992, with the last major revision published in 2004. CSA has reconvened the Technical Committee responsible for this important standard to revise the…
Read MoreFall Courses Posted!
Fall 2012 Seminars! I promised in an earlier post this summer that we would be launching open enrolment courses this fall, and we’ve done it! We have all of our current seminars listed on the Compliance InSight Training pages. We are offering two courses this fall in three locations. They are: October, Kitchener, Ontario –…
Read MoreGet the Basics Right!
For more than 15 years I’ve been teaching people about risk assessment, machinery safety and CE Marking of machinery in private, onsite classes and through presentations at safety conferences. Things are about to change! This fall, Compliance InSight Consulting will begin offering open-enrolment workshops in CE Marking, Risk Assessment Functional Safety, and Machinery Safety, all with a focus…
Read MoreThe Probability Problem
In Occupational Health and Safety (OHS), risk is a function of severity of injury and the probability of the injury occurring. Understanding the severity portion is usually fairly easy, although advanced technologies, like lasers for instance, take advanced hazard analysis methods to assess correctly. Probability, on the other hand, is a challenge. Mathematically, probability calculations go from…
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