Health and Safety Management by Business Relationships
PREVENTION AND MITIGATION OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY IMPACT DIRECTLY LINKED BY BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS
GRI 403-7
Oerlikon adopts the highest standards in ensuring the safety of our products and services within our operations and for customers. The standards are applied right from the beginning of the process when a product is being designed to the production, assembly, packaging, labeling, training, delivery and on-site customer service. We are also using a certified quality management system to ensure quality standards.
In cases where there are potential dangers of product use, Oerlikon provides specific health and safety relevant information to adequately warn users about them. For the packaging and transportation of our products and materials, we strictly adhere to international, trade export and local regulations in providing the required packaging, labels and declaration papers.
Equipment
Oerlikon’s equipment is built according to European standards and regulations and thus meets one of the highest safety standards in the world and, at the same time, fully adheres to the regulations of local countries in which the products are sold, delivered and used.
Risk Assessment and Precautionary Principle
GRI 102-11
Each equipment undergoes a risk analysis during development as well as during modification over the lifetime of the equipment. The risk assessment is comprehensive, covering technical, operational, health and environmental risks, and addresses all risks and mitigation actions needed. The effectiveness of these actions is then tracked during the project. A final check of the complete risk mitigation is a prerequisite for the final sign-off of the equipment before the product is placed on the market.
In addition, risks originating from the design or production process are assessed and taken as the basis for the equipment risk assessment. For equipment from acquired companies, the risk assessment is performed during the due diligence process or after the acquisition.
Ensuring Safety from Innovation to Delivery
Safety concepts are created for each system and are applied along the entire innovation process – beginning at the feasibility and verification phases to equipment and process safety. For the European Economic Area, the process includes CE certification as the final step. With each system, there are checklists for starting up safety-relevant components as well as manuals. The manuals include safety data sheets (SDS) available in all European languages and in more than 10 non-European languages and highlight residual risks and aspects on which the operator needs training. These checklists, manuals and SDS are delivered with the equipment to customers.
If incidents are reported, the following actions are taken, if required:
- Perform accident analysis with customer
- Adapt safety concept adaption
- Send out TI/SI to all customers worldwide for prevention
The incident will become a product sustainment project, which will send the technical information (TI) and safety information (SI) to all customers worldwide for prevention and track any safety or other issues, if they occur.
Moreover, equipment maturity program (EMP) projects are executed for older versions of machines and for machines from acquired companies if the level of safety standards that we require are not implemented.
After delivery of the equipment, we continue to monitor the products for systematic recording and processing of potential risks and detected accidents. At our sites operating the systems and at customers’ sites, safety moments, which are brief discussions on a safety-related topic that occur at the beginning of a work shift, take place to remind employees about safe practices and issues related to safety. Reporting on near-miss incidents and product observations from customers function as feedback to Oerlikon, which results in mitigation actions or flows back into product development for design improvements.
Oerlikon Fully Complies with International and Local Safety Standards, including:
- CE conformity for all equipment, incl. ISO standards (personal and equipment safety). The CE marking (an acronym for the French (“Conformité Européenne”) certifies that a product has met EU health, safety and environmental requirements, which ensure consumer safety.
- Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC)
- Low Voltage Directive (2014/35/EU)
- EMC (electro magnetic compliance) Directive (2014/30/EU)
- Radio Equipment Directive (2014/53/EU)
- REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals)
- RoHS 2 (Restriction on hazardous substances) (2014/65/EU)
- Germany: Technical Rules for Hazardous Substances (TRGS)
- Pressure Equipment Directive (2014/68/EU)
- ATEX Directive (2014/34/EU)
- USA: UL = Underwriters Laboratories (as per request)
- Russia: TR = Technical Regulations
Additional Product Safety Measures
Polymer Processing Solutions provides training to customers with extensive documentation, including on residual risk (using an operational manual). Internally, we also organize regular safety events and training on machinery safety. All employees in engineering are trained by the safety department during onboarding and receive regular update training.
In the Polymer Processing Solutions division, we have installed “Safety Committees” at both the division and branch levels. These Safety Committees have clearly defined processes and actions to monitor machinery safety issues and decide on the appropriate escalation steps when required. Additionally, the division frequently performs branch-internal and branch-independent audits of the implemented machinery safety process. The independent audits are then provided to the division’s top management.
The division has ensured the implementation of product safety requirements through its own internal directive, which is essentially based on the European Directive 2001/95/EC. In Germany this is under the Product Safety Act (ProdSG). This internal directive clearly defines the concept, structure and the roles of responsibility for ensuring product safety and serves to inform and enforce that safety is one of our essential principles. It underlines that it is fundamentally important for us to safeguard the safety of persons handling the products at our own sites and at customers’ sites worldwide.
Materials
In our materials business, we fully comply with all relevant regulations and regularly check and control that our products are compliant with these regulations, including the European Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) and the European Union’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS) regulation. Products that are not compliant are replaced before introduction on the market.
For all our materials sold, we provide our customers Safety Data Sheets (SDS). These SDS are prepared in strict compliance with the legal requirements of the applicable country for the safe use, handling, storage and disposal of these materials. These sheets are available online in all the relevant local languages and can be downloaded by customers at any point in time.
The SDS are generated with a regulatory compliant software, which is updated 3 to 4 times per year to include any new global, regional or local regulatory classification and requirements. Our materials team of experts are also part of different expert groups and in frequent contact with different consultants, enabling them to exchange information and keep up to date on the regulatory and technological changes in chemicals and materials.
Contractor Safety
Contractors working at an Oerlikon site must work in a safe way. In 2021, we introduced a new guideline that sets high-level requirements for contractor safety, which will be implemented globally. This guideline outlines the minimum requirements for contractor safety management that each site must apply when outsourcing jobs and services to contractors – for construction works, facility management, machine installation, maintenance and repair, building maintenance work, industrial services, such as transport and packaging, as well as building and commissioning work. These guidelines apply to direct contractors and to contractors appointed by the landlord for leased sites. These requirements aim to ensure that adequate processes are in place to control and minimize risks associated with job tasks performed by contractors. Contractors are to be selected in close cooperation with the local procurement department. The selection process needs to take into consideration the contractor’s safety record before the contract is granted or require the contractor to provide self-information, its health and safety management plans and references.
