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Conduct Feller Buncher Operations
 
Unit FPIHAR3207B:
Conduct Feller Buncher Operations
Forest Operations > Conduct Feller Buncher Operations > Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) Requirements

Hazard and Risk Management process

OH&S risk management is a process for identifying hazards in a work place and eliminating or reducing as much as possible the risks linked with those hazards.

If you come across a hazard in the coupe such as broken off limbs / branches, holes in the ground or trees leaning over insecurely, close off the area with danger tape and notify the appropriate people as soon as possible.

The purpose of this industry standard is to outline the recommended approaches to most of these hazards; however the dynamic nature of forestry operations requires a continuing process of managing risks.

The most commonly used (OH&S) risk management approach has four steps.

At each step, discussion between employers and employees is essential for risk management to be effective.

 

Step 1

Hazard Identification
  • Find out what hazards are presented in the workplace
  • Many hazards in the work place are well known and can be immediately tackled by well established ways of eliminating or reducing them

Step 2

Risk Assessment
  • Understand the nature and the level of the risk before taking action.
  • Determine the - Level of risk.
    • What could happen and
    • Why it could happen.
    • To whom it could happen

Step 3

Control Risk
  • Controlling the risk is done by utilising the Hierarchy of control measures. Elimination of the hazard completely is the ideal solution and you should always consider this first.
  • If the hazard cannot be eliminated completely use the control options to prevent or minimise exposure to the risk.
    • Risk controls are evaluated and chosen to achieve the highest level of protection (as far as is reasonably practicable). In practice, a number of controls may be required to reduce the risk.

Step 4

Check Controls
  • Make sure the controls are working.
  • Effective risk management requires not only that the risk be controlled but that they are checked to see if they are operating effectively and that circumstances have remained constant.

Chart (B)

Some common risks associated with operating a feller buncher include: