Equipment maintenance

Maintenance tasks should be planned and risk assessed. These tasks can be outside of routine tasks and may expose employees and others to hazardous situations.

You should complete a risk assessment before carrying out the task and involve your employees in the process.

Creating a list of premises, plant and equipment that need to be maintained (and how often) will help plan and risk assess the work.

There are many hazards associated with maintenance work. It’s important that you identify risks through the risk assessment process. These are some of the hazards that you might identify:

• Working at height – the risk of falls or falling tools and equipment.
• Gaining access to the equipment – such as work in confined spaces or harsh environments.
• Electrical hazards – shocks and burns if not isolated.
• Equipment – such as possible injuries from moving parts if not isolated.
• Musculoskeletal disorders – due to exerting force or working in a cramped space.
• Asbestos fibres, dust – sometimes these are not identified or marked.
• Hazardous substances – either used in machinery or as part of the maintenance process.
• Noise – working on or using noisy equipment.

Once you have identified the hazards you need to evaluate and estimate the risks, then decide if you are doing enough to manage the risks to your employees’ health and safety.

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Training to carry out maintenance safely

Who is at risk

Those who carry out maintenance work are especially at risk, but others can also be affected if they are working near the item or the area being maintained.

Contractors brought in to carry out maintenance work can be particularly at risk as they may be unfamiliar with the workplace and procedures in place.

When using contractors you need to ensure they have also completed a risk assessment of their tasks. Check you communicate and co-ordinate with them to ensure the maintenance tasks can be completed without risk.

Training

It is important all employees involved in carrying out maintenance work and those who will be working around them are competent and have received training.

You need to ensure those carrying out maintenance have the skills and experience to carry out the tasks.

This includes your own employees and any contractors or specialists you use to carry out the maintenance.

It’s very important they have been informed of any safe system of work or safety procedure that needs to be followed.

Safe systems of work

You should use method statements and permits to work to ensure high-risk activities are planned and carried out according to procedures.

This will help identify:

• key roles and responsibilities
• ways of communicating
• key steps to follow
• regular checks
• monitoring procedures
• emergency procedures

When carrying out work, the area needs to be secured to prevent unauthorised access. It’s important you consider how to restrict access to the equipment and the area being maintained.

You can attach warning cards to the machinery so people do not use them. However, it’s very important any machinery undergoing maintenance is isolated and locked off if there is a risk of it being restarted before maintenance is complete.