How should I begin?

Before starting the actual risk assessment you should clarify the following:

1. Who will conduct the risk assessment?
2. How can I record the organisation of my company?
3. How can the production establishment be broken down into meaningful working areas?

1. Who will conduct the risk assessment?

More detailed information can be found under our headings Who will advise and support? and Who must be involved and who should be involved?

2. Recording the company organisation

As the basis for the subsequent procedure you should record all departments and working areas in your company.

When doing this you must also take account of special groups of persons such as

1. children and young people 13 years and over,
2. pregnant women and nursing mothers,
3. rehabilitees, for example sick persons who are to be reintegrated gradually,
4. temporary agency workers and workers without adequate knowledge of German,
5. trainees or
6. workers from external companies, for example for cleaning, maintenance, construction or training.

3. Breakdown into working areas

In your company there are various working areas, for example, workshop, production, office, sheet metal forming, welding area and store in which specific activities are carried out at workplaces. To keep the risk assessment manageable, you should first divide the production establishment into single, individually distinguishable investigation units with the same activity features. Record what activities are carried out at these workplaces and who bears the responsibility there for occupational safety and health. This breakdown will provide your basis for the documentation of the risk assessment with regard to steps 2 to 7.

Note the following when doing this:

• the more dangers there are, the smaller the working areas selected should be;
• by the appropriate breakdown into working areas and by the systematic recording of the same or different activities in different working areas it is possible to limit the scope of the assessments to the essential and to avoid duplication of the work.

In the next section you will learn how you can specify the breakdown more precisely.

How can I specify the task more precisely?

Proceed effectively and purposefully as early as the preparation phase:

1. Check whether the workplaces can be divided up in terms of their operational structure into stationary and non-stationary ones, and conclude from this the appropriate procedure for the assessment.
2. Check whether individual-related assessments must be conducted for workers who need special protection and lay down the protection measures which may be necessary, adapted to the special performance conditions. 
3. Check whether there are dynamic working sequences in your company which have to be analysed in terms of their hazards and whether a risk assessment related to working sequences should be used.

Consider not only normal operation, but also the upstream and downstream processes and activities. In addition to normal operation it must therefore also be checked what hazards may arise, for example, when setting up and trying out work equipment, during start-ups and shut-downs of work equipment, during transport work, during maintenance and repairs or during disturbances and outages.

1. Breakdown into stationary and non-stationary workplaces

Stationary workplaces

Stationary workplaces are assessed in relation to working area and activity. First the hazards are identified for the working area and then the additional activity-related hazards arising at the workplaces.

Working-area-related

The working-area-related assessment is possible when the same conditions apply to a number of workplaces which can be put together spatially, for example working environment influences such as noise, climate and lighting. It is characteristic that all workers working here are exposed to the same hazards. These hazards only need to be recorded once. When action is taken the hazard in a number of workplaces can be reduced simultaneously.

Activity-related

The activity-related risk assessment is appropriate for assessing conditions arising specifically from the character of the activity or workplace.

Example:
Type of establishment: Metal-working
Working area: Workshop
Activity/Workplace: Welding

Non-stationary workplaces

Certain occupational groups that normally work at non-stationary workplaces (construction and assembly sites), for example maintenance engineers, electricians, roofers, bricklayers or steel construction workers, often performing recurrent activities which are typical of the particular occupational group.

For this type of workplace an appropriate risk assessment is one that relates to the occupational group.

When recording, proceed by first establishing the occupational group and then allocating to it the specific activities.

Example:
Type of operations: Sanitation and heating
Occupational group: Installation engineers
Activity: Installation, manual transport, servicing etc.

2. Individual-related risk assessment for workers in need of special protection

An individual-related risk assessment must be undertaken for activities carried out by persons in need of special protection, for example disabled workers, pregnant women or nursing mothers, trainees or people new to the occupation. For young people and pregnant women an individual-related risk assessment must be carried out. This is required by law.

Example:
Type of operation: Metal-working
Person: Trainee
Activity: Working with hand-guided machines

3. Working-sequence-oriented risk assessment

With the help of the work- sequence-oriented risk assessment you can analyse the individual working activities, processing sequences or transport sequences.

As a first step the task to be performed must be described precisely. Then the activities to be carried out must be determined and, where necessary, broken down into sub-activities. Since this procedure is normally part of the planning, the activities and sub-activities laid down there must be taken over.

Example:

Task: Scaffolding erection

• Activity 1: Preparation
  • Sub-activity 1: Site inspection at erection site
• Activity 2: Transport
  • Sub-activity 1: Loading of scaffolding material at the builder's yard
  • Sub-activity 2: Transport to construction site
  • Sub-activity 3: Unloading of scaffolding material
• Activity 3: Erection
  • Sub-activity 1: Erection of first layer of scaffolding according to rules (following instructions for erection and use)
  • Sub-activity 2: Erection of other scaffolding layers according to rules (from 8m use construction hoists)
  • Sub-activity 3: Assembly anchors and diagonals continuously as scaffolding erection progresses

What documents from my company can I use?

In the preparatory phase you should gather all documents together which concern the working area selected, the occupational group selected, the individuals affected or the task.

It is important to know what working processes, agents and work equipment are used. Conduct a search to establish whether there are any accidents, near-accidents, work-related illnesses and perhaps also indications by workers of deficiencies in the work organisation.

The documents you should use include, for example:

• working instructions,
• reports from the meetings of the Occupational Safety and Health Committee,
• in-house documents on noise measurements, hazardous substances and equipment tests,
• existing on-site inspection records by company doctors and specialists for occupational safety and health,
• list of hazardous substances,
• documentation of quality management,
• hygiene plan or
• contingency plans.

But you can also identify dangers and exposures retrospectively by including

• operational disturbances and cases of damage,
• accident notifications,
• illness statistics and health reports,
• occupational illness notifications,
• accident books or
• documents concerning near-accidents

in your preparatory measures.