Inherently safe enterprise

\"Inherently safe enterprises\" possess four basic characteristics: first, the safety and reliability of human personnel； The second is the safety and reliability of physical assets (machinery, equipment, etc.) ； Third is the security and reliability of the system ； Fourth, there are institutional norms and scientific management. These characteristics reflect the transition of safety management from traditional and experience-based management to scientific and cultural management.

It is generally believed that coal mining enterprises belong to high-risk industries, where accidents are inevitable while their absence is accidental. If we follow standards and procedures in all aspects of our work, reducing accidents to a minimum or even achieving zero accidents, we can conclude that accidents in coal mines are accidental, while no accidents occurring is the inevitable outcome – and this is what is meant by \"inherent safety\". Its basic characteristics are: first, the reliability of human safety. Regardless of the working environment and conditions, operations can be carried out in accordance with procedures, thereby preventing violations of safety rules and ensuring individual safety ； The second is the safety and reliability of the physical objects. Whether in a dynamic process or a static one, the object remains in a state where it can operate safely ； Third is the security and reliability of the system. In daily safety production, major accidents are prevented due to unsafe human behaviors or unsafe conditions of equipment, thus creating a safety system characterized by complementarity between humans and machines as well as mutual restraint between them ； Fourth, there are institutional norms and scientific management. 　　Since 2002, Xuzhou Mining Group Company has actively explored ways to achieve intrinsic safety from the following 5 aspects. 　　I. Strengthen employee education and training to strive for intrinsic safety in employee behavior (1) Enhance education on the concept of intrinsic safety. Based on the actual conditions of the enterprise, promote the concept of a safety culture and strengthen safety education for employees. Adhere to and improve the system of 10 minutes of daily pre-shift safety education as well as the weekly safety day activities. Implement strict attendance tracking and assessment for safety-related activities, enrich the content of safety education, and adopt various methods such as hazard anticipation and Q&A sessions, regulation study, personal experience sharing, and case analysis. Establish training records for employees’ safety education to improve the effectiveness of such training. 　　(2) Improve training methods. Adhering to the combination of professional theoretical training and practical skill training, team leaders and shift supervisors, while conducting theoretical training, organize management officers within their teams to carry out discussions and exchanges, as well as case analyses, in order to improve their ability to handle accidents and respond to emergencies. Strengthen on-the-job training for key and general job types; all workers working underground must receive training and hold valid certificates before taking up their posts. Adopt the system of multiple certificates per person and multiple skills per specialist, and build up a reserve of necessary professional and technical talents. Implement dynamic management for key job positions, and conduct comprehensive scoring assessments every six months based on work performance, professional knowledge, practical operational skills, and the ability to handle emergencies. Positions are filled through competition, with those at the bottom being eliminated. In wage distribution, priority should be given to skilled and technical positions in order to motivate employees to learn skills and specialized knowledge. Emphasis should be placed on training for knowledge renewal; as new technologies, processes, and equipment are introduced and adopted, significant efforts must be made to provide engineering and technical personnel as well as professional operators with training to update their knowledge. This approach ensures that training precedes the use of new equipment, thereby improving its effectiveness. Deepen the separation of teaching from assessment; all in-house training courses, whether full-time or part-time, organized by enterprises must separate training from examinations, and certificates shall not be issued to those who fail the exams. 　　(3) Refine the safety commitments for all employees. Leaders at all levels, various departments, and different types of workers must make safety commitments regarding the work process and outcomes, in line with their respective areas of responsibility and job duties. On a monthly basis, departments such as the Discipline Inspection Commission, Enterprise Management, and Safety Supervision conduct inspections and evaluations to assess whether these safety commitments are being fulfilled by leaders, business departments, and workers of all categories. 　　(4) Implement a safety mutual assurance system based on work teams, linking various types of personal accidents and violations of safety regulations to the economic interests of all members of each team, thereby fostering a culture of mutual supervision and enhancing safety awareness among everyone. 　　(5) Label equipment and facilities with names. All mechanical and electrical equipment used above and below the well, as well as various safety protection systems, must have designated personnel responsible for their maintenance; the safety, reliability, and effectiveness of these systems and equipment are linked to the interests of the person who operates the facility. The start dates of various production and construction projects underground, as well as the names of the persons in charge of these projects, are displayed for reference, in order to enhance the sense of responsibility among employees. 　　II. Rely on new technologies and equipment to accelerate the progress toward intrinsic safety in ventilation and disaster prevention (1) Further improve the management system for \"one ventilation and three disasters prevention,\" and fully implement the responsibility system for ventilation and disaster prevention management. Each mine must further refine the ventilation and safety management system, with the person responsible for safety as the primary leader and the chief engineer bearing overall technical responsibility, by establishing responsibility agreements for ventilation and safety management at each level, from the bottom up. Any mine with insufficient air volume, an unreasonable ventilation system, an inadequate safety monitoring system for high-risk (outburst-prone) mines, or failure to implement the \"four-in-one\" outburst prevention measures, as well as those with insufficient gas monitors on site, shall have its production restricted or suspended for rectification. 　　(2) Optimize the ventilation system to ensure it is reasonable and reliable. Production mines should accelerate the consolidation of old areas, simplify the ventilation systems, equip all permanent air doors underground with locking devices, and install automatic control systems along with audio and visual alarms for the main traffic air doors. Great emphasis is placed on local ventilation management; all local ventilators in the coal roads and semi-coal roads of various mines are equipped with automatic dual-fan dual-power switching devices to prevent unplanned power outages and interruptions in ventilation. Widespread adoption of wind network calculation software is employed to adjust the system using scientific methods and ensure proper air distribution. 　　(3) Improve the gas drainage or safety monitoring system to achieve comprehensive real-time monitoring. Strictly adhere to the principle of \"extracting first and then mining,\" further improve the gas drainage system, adopt various drainage methods with a focus on gas drainage from the same coal seam, increase the gas drainage rate, and at the same time adjust production schedules to ensure that there is enough time for drainage over the course of a year. All mines must establish safety monitoring and control systems, including the main production systems and safety facilities within the scope of monitoring, to ensure the stable operation of such systems. 　　(4) Fully implement deep-hole water injection into the coal mass to reduce dust generation at the source; all fully mechanized and caving mining faces are equipped with high-power drills and mobile compressors for deep-hole water injection into the coal mass, and this practice is being gradually extended to blast mining faces as well. Spray automation has been implemented at all coal transportation points underground, as well as for mining and blasting operations, shearing of fully mechanized mining equipment, and top coal caving. On this basis, secondary negative pressure dust removal devices have been introduced to enhance the effectiveness of spraying both inside and outside the coal mining machinery. 　　(5) Manage the tube monitoring and nitrogen generation systems properly to prevent spontaneous combustion in coal seams. Mines with coal seams prone to spontaneous combustion should establish a spontaneous ignition monitoring system. Mines where the tendency for spontaneous combustion in coal seams is severe should make full use of tube-based fire monitoring systems and mobile nitrogen generation systems to prevent spontaneous ignition incidents. 　　III. Improve the safety equipment of major production systems to achieve a complementary human-machine mechanism. (1) Utilize programmable control technology, with PLC implementation as its core element, to enhance the safety and reliability of the systems. Hydraulic control systems and programmable wellhead locking devices are adopted throughout the auxiliary shafts; container buffering and supporting devices as well as PLC control technology are improved, further enhancing the locking devices at the upper and lower entrances of the main and auxiliary shafts, at the intermediate levels, on the swivel platforms, for safety doors and signals, as well as for tank positions. Production beyond the lifting capacity is strictly prohibited; the main lifting system in the mine must have 8 hours of maintenance time per day. A strict management system must be implemented at the mine entrance to prevent accidents involving people or objects falling there. 　　(2) Focusing on improving the safety equipment in inclined shafts, efforts should be made to achieve human-machine restraint and complementarity. The main underground transportation systems incorporate overhead passenger transport devices for inclined shafts, comprehensive safety protection systems for inclined shaft operations, continuous traction vehicles for roadways, visual centralized control technology, and soft-start technology for conveyor belts. Automatic power on/off systems are installed in the parking areas for vehicles and pedestrians in horizontal roadways. Human motion detection systems, overloading prevention systems, and audio alarm systems are established in the main vehicle and pedestrian inclined shafts as well as in the pedestrian conveyor belts. All non-flame-retardant ordinary tapes used underground were replaced during the first half of the year, while non-flame-retardant strong tapes were replaced within the scheduled time frame. A firm determination has been made to improve track quality; the use of non-standard switches is prohibited underground, and switch control has been implemented in the main transportation tunnels of the key production mines. 　　(3) Utilize the demonstration of new electromechanical technology applications as a platform to comprehensively improve power supply management levels. Conduct a comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the reliability of the power supply system; by utilizing the established model of the power supply system, standardize its design, installation, management, maintenance, testing, as well as the working practices of employees. Promote the use of remote monitoring, remote signaling, remote control, and remote viewing technologies in substations, to achieve digital protection for high-voltage switches, the use of vacuum-based switches, and dry-type transformers for underground use. Strengthen the maintenance of equipment, and eliminate any instances of electrical equipment failing to meet safety standards underground. 　　(4) Take the development of mechanization in mining as a starting point to improve the intrinsic safety level of mining faces. Active efforts are being made to advance coal mining technologies; existing methods such as caving mining, full-height mining using large supports, and advanced conventional mining processes are evaluated and assessed. The most suitable production processes and equipment for the specific site conditions are selected in order to expand the scope of application of these technologies and maximize the level of mechanization. Following the approach of \"one comprehensive method, one high-efficiency method, and one blasting method,\" efforts are made to reduce waste and increase productivity. 　　(5) Take the intrinsic safety of system equipment as the main focus for research and development to improve the level of safety equipment. While introducing advanced safety equipment from home and abroad, collaboration is established with research institutions and universities to have engineering and technical personnel develop advanced equipment for key production systems such as ventilation, lifting, transportation, drainage, and power supply. Specific projects are identified for major initiatives, open tenders are held, and substantial rewards are offered to those projects that have been approved and put into operation. 　　IV. Promote innovation in management systems and methods to establish a long-term mechanism for safe production. (1) Implement closed-loop safety management in accordance with the occupational safety and health management system. Each mine, factory, and department has established a occupational safety and health management system accordingly. All levels, departments, and job categories must regulate their work practices in accordance with the principles, methods, and procedures of this system, thereby creating a positive cycle of continuous improvement. It is necessary to strengthen the identification and assessment of major hazard sources and significant risks, analyze their underlying causes and consequences, hold those responsible for such risks and hazards accountable at each level, keep records of them, monitor them regularly, and ensure follow-up action is taken. 　　(2) Improve the safety assessment method. In accordance with the **authority’s requirements. Refine the evaluation criteria for the intrinsic safety level of mining, excavation, machinery, transportation, ventilation, water control, and management systems; focus on key aspects and provide targeted guidance. Evaluations are conducted every six months, with assessment grades divided into A, B, C, and D. Rewards are given to those who achieve grade A, while those rated as C or D are subject to penalties and ordered to make corrections within a specified time frame or to suspend operations for rectification. 　　(3) Adhere to the combination of consolidation and innovation to deepen quality standardization efforts. The scope of quality standardization efforts is continuously expanded; every aspect, from design, construction, installation, to the procurement of materials and equipment, emergency treatment in case of work-related injuries, logistics services, and on-site production management, must be carried out in accordance with established procedures and standardization requirements. Zero-defect management is implemented in every position and for every type of work. Organize innovation in areas such as mechanisms, systems, processes, equipment, and management to increase the technological content of quality standardization efforts. Continuing to follow the approach of comprehensive planning, categorized guidance, use of models as examples, and overall advancement, competitions for creating model specialties and model mines will be held in an effort to establish national model mining areas. 　　(4) Reform the reward and punishment system for safety and quality. The quarterly safety and quality awards have been abolished, as well as the awards for excellence in inherent safety assessment and quality standardization; priority is given to mines that have a long safety record, excellent safety equipment, top-tier management capabilities, and are highly vulnerable to natural disasters. Increase penalties for various types of accidents, serious violations of safety regulations, and major potential accident hazards; link the incomes of those directly responsible for safety supervision to these penalties, implementing strict rewards and severe punishments. 　　(5) Refine the safety operation license system. A safety operation license system is implemented in all production sites, workshops, and fixed machine rooms both above and below ground at various grassroots units. The units’ safety production management or supervision departments are responsible for formulating specific inspection and approval procedures for such assessments. Any facility that has not obtained a safety operation license shall not be allowed to proceed with production activities. The person who conducts the inspection signs off, and that person is held accountable for it. 　　(6) Standardize ground safety management. Non-coal enterprises as well as surface factories, stations, and institutions should start by establishing complete organizational structures, and create safety production responsibility systems at all levels, for all types of work, and for all positions, so that no gaps or blind spots remain. Emphasis is placed on aspects such as safe power supply, fire prevention, explosion prevention, as well as railway transportation and internal plant traffic; safety protection facilities are improved, and safety monitoring is implemented in areas prone to fires and explosions. When factories or shops are leased out to external entities or individuals, it is necessary to conduct a safety qualification review of the contractors, as well as to strengthen the safety management of those contractors. In places where people gather such as auditoriums, shopping malls, hotels, and restaurants, as well as in key facilities like lumber yards and boiler rooms, industry-specific regulations and standards must be strictly followed. Regular safety inspections should be conducted to eliminate potential hazards and prevent serious fires and explosions. 　　(7) Increase investment in work safety in accordance with the law. Allocate funds for safety and technical measures in accordance with regulations and actual needs, giving priority to ensuring the safety equipment for \"one ventilation and three protections\" as well as the main production systems, so as to guarantee the completeness and reliability of safety production systems and facilities. Complete the intrinsically safe equipment plan on schedule, and enforce strict reward and punishment systems for assessment. Systems that do not meet safety production requirements are upgraded, and equipment and instruments with poor safety and reliability, frequent failures, and those operating in a faulty condition for extended periods are replaced. By implementing a budgeting system for safety and technical measures as well as a responsibility system for top leaders, the decision-making bodies and key responsible persons shall bear accountability for accidents resulting from insufficient investment in safety and makeshift solutions. 　　V. Strengthen safety inspections and enforce strict accountability 　　(1) Shift safety inspection processes forward and bring the focus to lower levels. While strengthening on-site safety inspections, the safety supervision department enhances its oversight of safety decisions, construction design, the development of stacking measures, as well as the production organization in operational departments and the supply of materials and equipment, thereby preventing violations and mistakes at the source. All production mines take the lead in implementing a system of assigning responsibility zones for safety inspections, with specialized departments being responsible for specific areas. The safety conditions in these inspection zones and the handling of potential hazards are linked to the salaries of those in charge, thereby improving the effectiveness of safety inspections. 　　(2) Strengthen the construction and assessment of safety supervision. All units must attach great importance to the development of safety inspection teams and provide strong support for safety inspection work. Production mines must have independent safety inspection agencies, with full-time and part-time safety inspectors assigned according to actual needs. Ground production facilities and non-coal enterprises must have departments dedicated to ensuring safety in production, with full-time or part-time safety inspectors appointed. Any dissolution, merger of such safety departments, or changes to the full-time inspection staff must be reported to the Safety Inspection Department for record-keeping. There should be stricter evaluation of safety inspectors; in cases where serious injuries or worse occur due to failures in on-site oversight or inadequate inspection, the deputy head of the safety department and the relevant inspectors shall be given sanctions ranging from administrative warnings upwards. If serious injuries or major accidents without casualties are concealed, the head of the safety department in that unit will receive a yellow card warning, with the requirement to resign if this happens twice in a row. 　　(3) Strengthen the investigation and handling of various types of accidents. Regarding the personal and production accidents that occur, in accordance with the severity of the accidents and the relevant management authorities, the principle of \"not letting go of any case\" is adhered to, and the responsible persons are held strictly accountable. The main Party and administrative leaders of the mine where the work-related death occurred had to pass three levels of assessment; the team officials who bore primary management responsibility were removed from their positions, while those directly responsible were dismissed or had their employment contracts terminated. The team involved in the accident was shut down for two days for rectification. Severe injury accidents and non-fatal accidents of level 2 or above are handled in accordance with work-related death accidents. Deepen the campaign against the three types of violations, clarify the targets for combating such violations at all levels, conduct evaluations according to the authority vested in officials for managing personnel, and take strict action against those who commit these violations in accordance with relevant regulations. 　　(4) Fully leverage the role of group supervisors and youth supervision positions to implement community-based prevention and management of safety issues. In accordance with the principle of \"the Discipline Inspection Commission overseeing the party, trade unions overseeing safety management, and youth leagues overseeing job-related matters,\" efforts will continue to be made in carrying out initiatives such as the \"Zero Accidents Around Party Members\" campaign, as well as competitions for group supervisors, female workers serving as a second line of defense, and youth supervisors, so as to truly create a strong collective effort for joint oversight. (Reposted from Safety Culture Network)

What are the standards for intrinsically safe enterprises, and how are they evaluated? In one sentence: The safety of people, objects, and the environment is ensured, along with proper management. Evaluation: No accidents.

What I want to know is whether there are specific standards (such as safety standardization)? What level of competence do the personnel have, and what level is the equipment at?

I wonder what criteria should be used to measure the quality of personnel? Will there still be exams issued just like in university?

My knowledge of safety matters is limited, and I may have many misunderstandings regarding the concept of intrinsically safe systems. Please feel free to criticize me if my views are incorrect. The concept of intrinsically safe was first introduced by Trevoe Kletz in his article “What you don’t have, can’t leak,” and it is primarily used in the chemical and process industries. Its core idea is to apply principles such as minimize, substitute, moderate, and simplify in safety design in order to reduce and control risks, thereby enhancing the safety of the device. And these days, many articles and leaders talk about safety management in terms of achieving intrinsic safety management and becoming inherently safe enterprises. What exactly is essential safety management? What is an intrinsically safe company? Has the definition of intrinsically safe been expanded in China at present? Is there a suspicion of conceptual abuse?