The file the inspector actually opens

Occupational health and safety for factories, workshops and yards across the Vaal, the East Rand and the Highveld. We walk the floor first.

Book a walk-through

We write the file that is still true on the morning something goes wrong, not the one that gets you through the audit.

The practice

What the practice does

Risk assessments

Baseline and issue-based assessments done on the floor, with the people who run the machines. You get the register, the ratings and an action list with dates on it.

SHE files

A file built from your actual plant: appointments, procedures, registers, COCs and safety data sheets, indexed so any item can be found in under a minute.

Incident investigation

Section 24 reportables, the IOD paperwork and a root-cause report your insurer and the Department inspector can both work from.

Legal appointments

16.2s, 8.2s, first aiders, fire teams and machinery supervisors, written, signed, dated and diarised before any of them quietly lapse.

19

Years on plant floors between Sasolburg and Springs.

740

Safety files built, rebuilt or brought up to date since 2007.

48

Hours from the walk-through to your draft findings. Every job.

4

Practitioners, all registered, all still doing their own site work.

The people who come out

Elmarie DippenaarPrincipal practitioner

Started as a safety rep on a strip mill in 1998 and has been writing files since 2007. Does the first walk-through on every new client herself.

Sipho RadebeIncident investigation

Fourteen years in mining and metals. Handles reportables, IOD claims and the inquiries that follow. Works the floor in isiZulu, Sesotho and English.

Wynand BotesMachinery and plant

GMR 2.1 appointed at two foundries before joining Skans. Guarding, lockout, pressure equipment and lifting machinery, the parts of the Act with teeth.

Nomvula KhumaloTraining and appointments

Runs the first aid, firefighting and SHE rep courses and keeps the appointment register. Based in Secunda, on the road four days a week.

The first walk-through

The first visit is not a slideshow. We start at the gate, walk the process end to end with your supervisor and stop at every machine, board, ladder and chemical store. We photograph what we find and we ask the operator, not the manager, how the job actually gets done. It usually takes half a day, and you have the draft findings list before we leave the yard. Then we write the file. Not a template with your logo on the cover: the appointments your structure actually needs, procedures for the machines you actually run, and a register an inspector can page through without asking you a single question. That is the whole job.

Two inspectors have been through this plant since Skans rebuilt the file. Neither of them asked me for anything I could not hand over in the same minute.

Johan Steyn, plant manager, Meyerton Steel Fabricators

Sectors

These are the floors we know without reading up first. Anything else, we will say so before we quote.

Logistics and yards

Loading bays, forklift permits, racking inspections and driver hours.

Engineering workshops

Guarding, lockout, hot work permits and lifting tackle registers.

Electrical and panel shops

Test bays, live work permits and the occupational certificate appointments.

Agri-processing

Silos, confined space entry, combustible dust and seasonal labour induction.

Chemical and coatings

Safety data sheets, bunding, ventilation surveys and spill response drills.

Labour brokers

Induction, medicals and the Section 37 agreement nobody signs until it is right.

Construction sites

Construction regulation files, 8.1 appointments and site-specific inductions.

Facilities and retail

Emergency plans, evacuation drills and the annual re-check that keeps them real.

Bring us in before the inspector does.

Book a walk-through

Where things stand

We reply the same working day. The first walk-through is quoted, not free, but you keep the findings list whether you sign anything or not.