As we looked at in last week’s post, crane operators could easily feel like they have to be a super hero to do their jobs. But super heroes don’t leave things to chance, they observe, they prepare and they take action. In order to be a Super Craneman, one must also be a safe craneman. One of the most important tasks required to prevent crane accidents is to recognize job site hazards and one of the easiest ways to do this is to perform a Job Safety Analysis (JSA) before even sitting in the seat.
A JSA helps to bring the crane/lifting team together to integrate accepted safety and health principles and practices into a particular task or job operation and look for ways to reduce exposure to identified hazards. Here are some guidelines:
When should a JSA be performed?
- Prior to the start of a new job
- Prior to the re-start of a job
- Prior to work each day, even when a JSA was previously performed and the work site conditions appear to not have changed (considered a re-start).
- When a person joins a teams job after the initial JSA, the person in charge should stop the job to inform the new member(s) of the hazards, risk, PPE requirements and inspection findings.
- When an employee leaves a job and another person is required to take on the responsibilities of the departing member, the person in charge should stop the job to inform the existing job member(s) of their added responsibilities
- A job should not re-start until all members with new or changed responsibilities are aware and comfortable with the JSA.
Who should be involved in a JSA?
- Any employee performing job tasks
- Contractors involved in the job tasks
- Individuals on site who are responsible for supervising the job tasks
How should a JSA be performed?
Crane Tech recommends the use of a checklist/report to help make the JSA process as easy a possible. When performing a JSA, there are four basic stages:
- Selecting the job to be analyzed
- Breaking the job down into a sequence of steps
- Identifying potential hazards and/or risks
- Determining preventative measures to overcome these hazards
As you are working this week, think about your JSA process. How are you doing with performing JSAs? Are you working as a team to collaborate on safety, or are you relying on your Super Craneman powers to be safe?
Next week we will look in detail at the process for identifying potential hazards and how to determine preventative measures. In the meantime, make sure you take our poll about your requirements to perform a Job Safety Analysis, or register/login to post a comment about some of the other common hazards you find on your sites.
