Occupational safety: OSIMA® on a wave of success
Numerous companies and Bundeswehr bases use system to meet occupational safety requirements.
Furstenfeldbruck, 05 September 2008
ESG Elektroniksystem- und Logistik-GmbH is evolving into an important provider of solutions in the field of occupational and operational safety. The system and software specialist has developed an application called OSIMA® to help employers with the mandatory enforcement of Germany´s Ordinance on Industrial Safety and Health (Betriebssicherheitsverordnung). Most recently, the system was introduced in a large chemical park with around 30,000 employees.
As part of a pilot project, ESG is presently carrying out a risk assessment study for maintenance processes at Currenta, a subsidiary of Bayer and Lanxess. Currenta is based at the 470-hectare chemical park CHEMPARK in Leverkusen, which is where OSIMA is currently being deployed. The project, which runs until the end of this year, aims to establish whether ESG´s solution can complement the risk-assessment tools used by Currenta until now. ESG is providing the software tool, training the responsible Currenta staff on how to use it, and migrating the necessary data from the existing systems.
In another project, OSIMA is being employed at CSI Computer System GmbH in Ilmenau, a company which generates full documentation for several manufacturers of computer-controlled milling and honing machines. This is the context in which ESG plans to carry out risk assessment studies with OSIMA.
These risk assessment studies are a legally binding part of the German Ordinance on Industrial Safety and Health (BetrSichV), which places a high responsibility on employers to ensure safety at the workplace. This involves such measures as regularly testing all work equipment for possible interaction or interference with other equipment and materials in the working environment.
OSIMA enables such tests to be carried out efficiently and with a minimum use of resources. This helps to avert any potential danger to life and limb of the employees, and gives legal security to the employer. An electronic guide provides support in systematically carrying out the risk assessment studies, and any amendments to the law are automatically incorporated and assigned to the activities that involve the use of the respective devices. OSIMA also has a database for components and materials containing hazardous substances. A training module ensures that the users´ knowledge is constantly updated, thus fulfilling the employer´s duty to keep staff informed. The risk assessment process and all protection measures introduced are documented and monitored almost entirely automatically.
The first to a use tool-based risk assessment method to comply with the Betriebssicherheitsverordnung over the past few years has been the Bundeswehr, one of Germany´s largest employers with some 350,000 people. Its sheer size and vast, virtually unmanageable, quantities of work equipment make a standardised, database-assisted risk assessment system absolutely imperative. With the aid of OSIMA, ESG has successfully examined and assessed about 100 different devices used by the German armed forces – from radio and radar devices to armoured howitzers. At present, it is assessing the MARS rocket launcher. ESG is thus one of the leading providers of solutions for ensuring occupational and operational safety at the Bundeswehr.
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ESG Elektroniksystem- und Logistik-GmbH
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