Award Nomination:
Following a series of incidents in the Port of Grangemouth, a multi-departmental team was formed to identify opportunities for improvement within the Grangemouth Container Terminal, our primary focus was to ensure the safe discharge, handling and loading of containerised cargo.
Employees from Operations, Engineering, Health & Safety, Learning & Development were nominated to participate in the improvement project. Within the working group, workers, supervisors, managers and directors all actively participated in the various simultaneous projects.
Workers were consulted through collaborative discussions with the Trade Union Safety Representatives.
Prior to the commencement of the project; a project brief and communication distribution list were created to define the project’s scope and SMART objectives.
3 months was allocated to the project. Key deliverables of the project were allocated to appropriate responsible people.
Additional Information
Due to a series of incidents within the Grangemouth Container Terminal, it was agreed that focus should be placed on the handling of containerised cargo.
Forth Ports’ Dundee & Methil Field Safety Advisors were allocated to the Port of Grangemouth for three and a half months. Both advisors were unfamiliar with the container handling operations but were allocated time to learn the operation through partnered hours with Crane Operators, Straddle Carrier Operators, Stevedores and others involved in the container handling operation. The new perspective offered by the Dundee & Leith Safety Advisors helped to quickly identify multiple opportunities for improvement.
Leith’s safety advisor is effective in coaching for safety whilst Dundee’s is more system focussed, this allowed for opportunities to be identified in both employee behaviours and procedures used to control work.
The objectives as defined in the project brief were to:
- Improve engagement and open lines of communication.
- Standardise roles and responsibilities.
- Align learning & development to roles and responsibilities.
- Improve health and safety performance.
The project was kicked off through a two local “Time out for safety” events led respectively by the Operations Director and Senior Operations Manager. These events respectively discussed Roles & Responsibilities, Working to the crane’s backreach, Safety briefings and Straddle Carrier travel directions.
Minutes were taken to allow actions key points delivered by any attendee to be recorded.
Throughout the project, a weekly meeting was held with all project team members. Both Leith & Dundee Field Safety Advisors would present their findings and update on any actions they had and allow the Grangemouth Team to discuss the findings in a constructive manner. All actions were tracked through Forth Ports’ Assure system which is used for recording health and safety incidents and activities.
Through the overall project, smaller projects were assigned to individuals and teams based on the findings of the Dundee & Leith Field Safety Advisors, these projects included:
- Storage, handling and other activities associated with Reefer containers
- Revision and briefing of six roles involved in the container handling operation.
- Review of radio discipline
- Review of risk assessments involved in the container handling operation
- Review of pre-shift briefings
- Review of various areas involved in the container handling operation (Such as the Empty Container Compound)
The project’s success was measured through reduction in incidents and improvement in health & safety cultural scoring through our Quay Shifts programme. Both Leith and Dundee’s Field Safety Advisors received significant praise and recognition from Port Operators during the cultural survey; due to the advisors constant visibility and engagement with Port Operators.
The wider Port industry benefitted from the Grangemouth Operational Improvement project, Port Skills and Safety published Safety Alert “SA-020-2023” following the discovery by the Dundee & Leith safety advisors, by bringing this issue to the attention of UK ports, we have helped to reduce the likelihood of incidents caused by dropped objects and from reefer containers transported via road.
Dale Robertson, Chris Foy and Rhys Jeffrey – Forth Ports