A UK dealership imported
European-manufactured construction equipment that was CE compliant upon import,
but lost its CE compliance when the dealer-installed UK-sourced construction
equipment options and attachments, allowing unsafe and potentially lethal
construction equipment to be marketed and sold within the UK. The UK dealer
failed to:
- Specify and implement the internal
legislative, safety and qualitative standards and operating procedures
required to adapt construction equipment for sale in the UK market.
- Inform its suppliers of UK-sourced
construction equipment options and attachments of the legislative, safety,
and qualitative standards that the UK options and attachments must be
manufactured and supplied to comply with.
- Install a quality management system
(QMS) to maintain and ensure supplier and internal adherence to the
legislative, safety and qualitative standards required for construction
equipment adapted for the UK market.
The imported and adapted
construction equipment suffered from several failures of UK-sourced options and
attachments, where legislative, safety and qualitative standards needed to be
specified or where UK-sourced options and attachments had been fitted
incorrectly. The issues resulted in operator safety systems being compromised
and the premature failure of safety equipment, examples of which include:
- Fire safety systems fitted that
corrupted the integrity of rollover protection systems (ROPS).
- Safety barriers that fractured and
broke during construction equipment use.
- Camera and safety equipment systems
that failed prematurely in operation.
- Security equipment that fell from
the construction equipment whilst in transit.
A QMS ensures that directors,
managers, and staff operate according to common legislative, quality, and
safety standards to protect the public and guide staff in fulfilling the
organisation's purpose to ensure and maximise its profitability, efficiency,
and effectiveness.
The lack of a QMS resulted
in the UK dealer not being able to protect its customers when using the
construction equipment, as the problems encountered by the organisation
resulted in the following safety concerns for UK-sourced options and
attachments:
- The construction equipment lost CE
compliance when options and attachments were fitted.
- Legislative standards were not
specified for any option or attachment system.
- Quality was not monitored to ensure
construction equipment operator and staff safety.
- The options and attachments
were not subjected to independent UK safety testing.
- The equipment manufacturer did not
endorse fitting UK-sourced options and attachments.
- Installation procedures were not
specified or provided for UK-sourced options and attachments.
- Customers were not provided with
UK-sourced options or attachment operating instructions.
- Customer maintenance manuals were
not provided for UK-sourced options and attachments.
A QMS ensures that
legislative, quality, and safety standards and criteria are adhered to and
upheld internally within the organisation and by suppliers. The UK dealer
failed to install a QMS or specify any internal standard operating procedures
to ensure compliance with legislative, quality and safety standards. These
failures resulted in:
- A commercial risk analysis not
being carried out for the supply of UK options or attachments.
- Construction equipment safety
requirements, obligations, and standards not being specified.
- The legal risks of supplying
options and attachments not being considered.
- UK option and attachment supply
contracts not being specified and signed off by Suppliers.
- A product catalogue not operating
to track and trace UK option and attachment failures.
- Suppliers not being held to account
for UK option or attachment safety failure risks.
- A category management policy not
being enacted for the supply of UK options or attachments.
- Formal negotiations not being
regularly carried out for the supply of options or attachments.
- A lack of quality assurance or
legislative standards to ensure CE/ISO compliance.
A QMS consists of
organisational-wide procedures and processes to ensure the quality and safety
of services or products to meet and exceed customers’ expectations. Where an
organisation imports and distributes construction equipment, it must do so to
ensure that the highest levels of operator, staff and public safety standards
are achieved and adhered to.
QMS systems are typically
measurable and repeatable but rely on continuous improvement methods in a
feedback loop to review and improve quality and safety standards.
Organisational safety objectives relating to the safety of construction
equipment operators, staff and the public are critically important as they
govern the values and strategic direction of organisational health and safety
policies.
A mistake many corporate
leadership teams make is oversimplifying or ignoring their health and safety
obligations through ignorance and focusing solely on revenue or profitability
objectives. A QMS requires Directors, Managers, and staff to ensure an array of
safety objectives are considered that balance and meet all stakeholders' needs,
especially regarding legislative, qualitative, and health and safety concerns.
A quality approach to
legislative, qualitative and health and safety matters ensures that an
organisation sets goals for monitoring and evaluating internal operating and
supplier performance criteria to ensure that the highest levels of safety are
achieved and that the integrity of health and safety procedures is maintained,
which reduces the risk of death and serious injury of construction equipment
operators, staff, and the public, to a minimum.
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