Australasian Mine Safety

56 AU ST R A L AS I A N M I N E SA F E T Y J O U R N A L / AUGUST 2022 / www.amsj.com.au I n an industry where risk is ever-present, managing the tyres on a mine site is considered one of the highest risks. There is the stored energy and significant weight of earthmover tyre and wheel assemblies (more than 8,000 kilograms), and many tasks that must be performed manually. With the constant, inherent risk of everything from pinched fingers to serious injury, how does a mining tyre management and supply company like Kal Tire's Mining Tire Group strive to make its work safer in every way possible? How has Kal Tire Australia achieved more than three years free of a lost-time incident (LTI)? "We recognise that we have a responsibility to both our team members and to our customers to have a system of completing work safely to ensure the risk of harm to any of our team members and others on site is as low as reasonably practicable," says Miles Rigney, Kal Tire's Mining Tire Group Australia vice president. "Generally speaking, 80 per cent of all incidents can be traced back to human error," says Rigney. "So, we look at how we can ensure team members have a safety mindset not just at the start of the day, but right through their shift." Over the last 50 years, Kal Tire has realised creating a safe work environment and a culture of safety is not one step or one safety meeting or the provision of PPE. It involves a great many steps, tools and resources throughout the day, every day—on every mine site. Kal Tire's 'architecture of safety' encompasses its unique and comprehensive approach to training, safe work procedures, tooling innovation, reporting and more. TRAINING AND WORKING TO THE HIGHEST SAFETY STANDARDS When Kal Tire technicians join their team on a mine site, they bring not just "sharp skills" but also an education in what it means to perform their tasks safely for the benefit of themselves and others—and they've had to prove it. "By training all technicians to the Kal Tire standard, our customers can feel confident knowing we're bringing industry best practices and consistency," says Rigney. "That means fewer incidents and it means productivity gains." To help keep the mindset of safety and the need to be vigilant alive in the day- to-day, every Kal Tire shift begins with a pre-start safety information meeting, where supervisors guide discussions about equipment being used that day or how a change in the weather could affect their work, among other relevant and timely safety topics. Throughout the day, supervisors are performing safe work observations by leaning on additional administrative support, and team members are accessing safe work instructions and procedures—live documents that are constantly updated and evolving based on insights gained from a centralised safety management system, Velocity. The database captures any incidents or near misses on all sites where Kal Tire operates, and daily reports are shared with all regional management teams. "Those daily Velocity highlights help us ensure we're staying on top of identifying any new risks. Maybe an incident happens to a team member in South America, and now we can challenge ourselves and ask, 'Could this happen to us here in Australia?' If so, what can we do to prevent that? As an international organization, that ability to share and act on those insights is a great benefit to our teams and our customers." In Australia and Papa New Guinea, where about a third of Kal Tire's customers have a one or two-site operation, access to those insights and international best practices are especially valued. A comprehensive approach to safety and training allows Kal Tire to bring industry best practices and the highest standards to every mine site Kal Tire's Architecture of Safety 56 AU ST R A L AS I A N M I N E SA F E T Y J O U R N A L / AUGUST 2022 / www.amsj.com.au

• Cover