Jim Skrabak came to Wednesday, November 28th’s class to talk about occupational safety and health in the engineering field. He is currently the Corporate Health & Safety Manager for CDM Smith. Skrabak first started out as a chemist though, receiving his Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry from the University of New Hampshire and an MBA from Northeastern University. After his chemists years he decided to make a career change and become an industrial hygienist. He began his career as an industrial hygienist for a major insurance carrier assessing chemical and physical hazards in manufacturing facilities. He then progressed to developing health and safety programs for hazardous waste remediation projects and eventually managing health and safety programs for heavy construction, demolition and maintenance projects in the energy, environmental, infrastructure and manufacturing industries. He has over 25 years of experience in the development and management of Health & Safety programs in the engineering services and construction industries.
He first started his talk by asking the question why safety first? He elaborated and told us there are a variety of reasons, but most importantly is that accidents cost money. There are direct and indirect cost associated with accidents and these costs can add up to five to six digit numbers. Some direct costs that are attributed to accidents are medical cost, lost work time, and replacement of damaged equipment. Indirect costs are production delays, training replacement personnel and the chance for insurance cost to increase. Usually these indirect costs are four to five times larger than the direct costs. With both these costs accounted for it could lead the engineering firm to a serious loss in profits.
- Say for example we have an accident that has direct cost of 1000 dollars. We can easily assume that the indirect costs are going to at least four times that amount. Now we have to assume that the net profit margin is about 5%. It’s going to take about 100,000 revenue dollars to account for the money lost in the accident. To get 100,000 dollars, the company is going to need at least 1000 billable hours sold at a rate of $100 per hour in a future project.
- As you can see, this one incident sets the company severely back in finances. They, for lack of better terms, “waste” a project trying to rejuvenate revenues due to it.
- Now imagine a company has multiple injuries a year… that is why companies stress safety and health precautions to such an extent. Serious money can be lost that could have been directly going to profit.
Safety and health precautions can be broken down into the different positions involved in an engineering firm. Starting off with the design engineer, they are the people that actually plan the entire project. It is their responsibility to design “safe” facilities. The first part of that responsibility is to know and meet the local codes of the town or state. Most engineers do a fine job in making sure their plans are up to code, but it’s the second part of the responsibility that some engineers lack in. The second responsibility is to consider the construction workers, not just the “public”. The engineers need to make sure the construction of the infrastructure is as safe as when the actual structure is done. Today there is over 400 design recommendations to make construction work safer.
The next position is the Construction/Project Manager. Their responsibility is to recognize responsibility to finish a project on schedule, within a budget, meet quality goals and most importantly avoid anyone getting hurt. In order to achieve all these points they need to monitor the contractor’s performance and hold them accountable for their work and men. They also need to consider safety performance exhibited within the contractor when selecting a contractor to do the project. To determine who “wins” a project has a significant matter in the health and safety performance of the contractor. This same performance is also viewed by clients when deciding on an engineering firm to accomplish their project. Performance is measured by EMR, Experience Modification Ratio. This is a prediction of future losses by basing it off of past claims. Companies usually aim for an EMR under 1. CDM Smith personally is at .75, which is an ideal rate to be at.
The next person most reliable for project’s safety is the owner’s. They ultimately set the tone for the project. They make the decisions and in the end it’s their decision on how things are done on site. It is their responsibility to inform contractors of any know hazards including confined spaces, toxic materials, or any emergency procedures. They also need to be able to let the contractor and construction manager do their job, but also monitor their work as well, since those two positions know the most about the work that is being completed. The last responsibility of the owner is to seek and pay for safety and quality in a company. They need to expect to pay a little bit more for a higher quality and safety for work. It goes back to the old saying, “you get what you pay for”.
The last person that carries a high responsibility for the safety and health of the project is the contractor. They essentially make the plans and executions for the work that needs to be done. They hire the managers, supervisors and employees so it is their responsibility in who they hire are all competent people. Not only do they need to higher competent workers they also need to provide adequate training and resources to them as well. You can only expect people to do so well when they only have minimum education on the project at hand.
Safety and health standards have increased over the years due to the organization called OSHA, Occupational Health and Safety Administration. In 1970 the community requested safer measures in the working field and in response OSHA created minimum standards required by law that work places need to be free from “Recognized Hazards”. Companies and businesses have increased their health and safety standards, but there will always be people that make stupid decisions or just a run of bad luck that lead a company to accidents. Most accidents are avoidable, but some just happen. It’s the company’s responsibility to stop the accidents that are avoidable though and deal with the accidents that due occur with just need.