Institution news
Ahead of September’s Crane Safety 2019 seminar, we spoke with event chair Steve Bradby to get an advanced preview of this year’s programme and the key issues for lifting professionals.
Q: Please could you briefly explain your role, involvement and experience with regards to Crane Safety.
Steve Bradby (SB): As Engineering Leader I take an active involvement in safety incidents and try to ensure we have a clean investigation which shows clear route cases where possible. I try to ensure any actions are realistic and achievable and have real value. Where possible we will develop engineering solutions actively involving suppliers and users
Q: What are the main engineering challenges facing the industry at the moment?
SB: There is a strong focus to resolve every problem with technology, it is so easy just to make things complicated creating more and more risk. We need to be careful and ensure we add real value.
Q: What key topics are you excited to speak about?
SB: All of them! There is a great mix with input from many areas which we do not often get to hear from.
Q: What are the most common gripes you hear from your lifting experts?
SB: Communication is our biggest problem, not just quantity, but quality, clear instruction and discussion where all parties understand what has to be achieved and the method – this is at all levels from slinger to crane operator and everything on site.
Q: What are your top tips when tackling a new lifting challenge?
SB: Don’t rush, take time and consider all options, often the safest option is discounted for the worst reasons.
Q: Why is it important for engineers to join Crane Safety 2019?
SB: It is so easy for us to be insular and not take good practice from other areas, here we have a great opportunity to see and hear best practice from Nuclear, Construction, Offshore, manufacturing and Health and Safety executive point of view, a rare opportunity not to be missed!
Q: What developments in crane safety are you most interested in for the future and why?
SB: Autonomy, our issues are often the human factor, and to resolve them we introduce more and more systems which often create issues and unexpected complications. Using autonomy to take the mundane nature out and develop and use operator skill for the most intensive and demanding part of lifting.
Crane Safety 2019 takes place on 17 September 2019 at the institution of Mechanical Engineers, One Birdcage Walk, London. Now in its fourth iteration, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Crane Safety seminar continues to provide a forum for all those involved in lifting operations, risk and project planning to address the key challenges involved and to discuss the strategies and technologies available to reduce risk, enable cost savings and ensure compliance with safety legislation. Speakers at this year’s seminar include Health and Safety Executive, BYLOR, Sparrows Group, VolkerFitzpatrick, Dounreay, Laing O’Rourke and more.
For full event information and registration, please visit the event website www.imeche.org/cranesafety2019.