Enhancing poultry processing safety in the design phase

Ensuring worker safety at the poultry processing plant should start way before day-to-day operations and be a consideration from the very start of the plant design or equipment purchasing process.

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Poultry processing plant design should include health and safety considerations from the initial concept and need to be present at every phase through to turnover, says Tim Ward, global safety and security manager for Keystone Foods.
Poultry processing plant design should include health and safety considerations from the initial concept and need to be present at every phase through to turnover, says Tim Ward, global safety and security manager for Keystone Foods.

Ensuring worker safety at the poultry processing plant should start way before day-to-day operations and be a consideration from the very start of the plant design or equipment purchasing process.

Building a new poultry processing facility or installing new poultry processing equipment at an existing plant brings with it the risk of industrial injury. Examining the health and safety considerations of any change from the start can help to protect the labor force and keep risks to a minimum.

Poultry processing plant design safety basics should be considered at each phase of the development.

Conceptual design

Health and safety professionals are not always involved at the initial concept phase but  they should be, according to Tim Ward, global safety and security manager for Keystone Foods, who presented at this year’s International Production and Processing Expo.

He explained that health and safety professionals have a lot of data on, for example, the frequency and severity of worker injuries, gathered over years. Bringing this information to the concept phase can help to identify potential hotspots - where engineering controls need to be put in place to reduce injuries. Input at this stage can help to design a safe process, Ward said.

In any new project, for example, will walls or pipes be affected, and could this expose asbestos? This could have an impact on the whole development, and should be identified at the start.

Similarly, various legal standards and requirements need to be identified. Ward noted that Keystone had carried out a global legal registry project across its seven countries of operation, looking at health and safety legal requirements. After a gap analysis, 33 documents were identified that were needed for corporate governance to run Keystone Foods from a health and safety perspective.

Then there is safety by design. This is a document put together by health and safety professionals that can be used by engineers to design a project, informing them of safety, health and environmental expectations.

Preliminary engineering

At this stage, consideration needs to be given to cost, and which health and safety considerations will have the biggest impact. These are likely to include fire safety requirements, for example, placing fire-resisting paneling on processing plant walls, and which type is best, or examining fire suppression systems. 

Material handling needs to be considered, and health and safety indicators examined when selecting equipment.

“We should ask at this stage, for the best possible. It’s not for the project team to deny something. It goes to management to say yea or nay, so shoot for the stars,” Ward said.

Permits and sanitation also need to be considered at this time. Sanitation is one of the biggest risks affecting any project. It needs to be conducted thoroughly and workers must have good access to what needs to be cleaned.

Walking work surfaces, for example, must be considered. Do catwalks need to be installed, to prevent sanitation people climbing on processing equipment? Based on available drawings, a preliminary risk assessment can be conducted.

A piping and instrumentation diagram (P&ID) review needs to be conducted at this stage. Direction of flow should be reviewed, as well as pipe content.

“I’ve learned the hard way, with people trying to read temperature and pressure gauges crawling under or climbing on equipment. We need to make sure they’re in a safe location,” said Ward.

“In addition, we must ensure that pressure valve reliefs relieve into a safe location – we don’t want them pointed at a pressure gauge, or towards a walking work surface, for example.”

Detailed engineering

At this point, the drawing is 90 percent complete, and this is when ergonomic assessments must be conducted, along with emergency preparedness. Consider, for example, how installation of a piece of equipment will affect emergency preparedness or response plans at the poultry processing plant.

An industrial hygiene study also needs to be done. If a drawing suggests that a current process will change with different chemical use or noise levels, for example, this needs to be known before the facilities are handed to production.

The P&IDs need to be reviewed to ensure that any suggested changes have been implemented.

Hazard and operability studies (HAZOP) also must be conducted at this stage. There are various definitions, so it is important is to pick one and stick to it. A health and safety professional should look at the controls hierarchy so that the team can understand what they are. The project team needs to examine associated risks and map them out.

Execution phase

Particularly for larger projects, it is important to select contractors with health and safety and training requirements for their employees. Contractors working on-site must be trained to do so safely.

However, you still have to provide them with the safety processes at your processing plant, including emergency-specific procedures and site-specific risks. If they are going to use your equipment, you want to make sure they can provide training records and contractor safety plans. It’s beneficial to have a write-up of how they are going to work safely.

You could have a contractor safety plan of action. As part of this, they may have to inspect themselves daily, and ensure that they have permits. If working with electricity, for example, you want to protect your employees and you want to protect your equipment.

Validation and project turnover

The project team should walk around the poultry processing plant and each member should have their own checklist, and look at whether there is machine guarding, if equipment is labeled properly, if there is good chemical storage, and so on.

Review standard operating procedures (SOPs) and standard work instructions (SWIs). If a process has changed, a new SOP or SWI might need to be written.

Permits and certificates must be properly managed, so if a request comes from government, they can be easily accessed. If there’s a problem, all documentation needs to be in order.

If there are any new hazards in the processing plant, ensure that employees are appropriately trained. Evacuation plans also must be considered. If the poultry processing plant layout or an exit door has changed, do a new drill.

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