Wind Energy Update: The Importance of a Safety Culture for Wind Turbine Technicians

London, UK (PRWEB) July 09, 2011

Some would argue that that there is no actual new technology within a wind farm that doesnt already exist in other industries today. They say that it is just presented at height and that this is a hazard that is already fully understood and already well controlled. In fact most wind farm operators are indeed getting safety right, but its the minority who arent that we hear about.

So the industry consensus is that the importance of safety does not lie with the turbine itself being a hazard, but rather with the safety mentality of the technician working on it.

Wind Energy Update recently interviewed Eric Endreszl, Head of Operations at US Climb and Abseil about the US wind sectors performance on onshore turbine Health and Safety. Endreszl comments there are improvements that need to be made, especially around enclosed spaces but follows most companies are already training their employees correctly.

In such a nascent industry it is the inexperienced workers that are more at risk. Wind turbine technicians therefore need to build upon their already existing safety culture within the workplace to promote the development of appropriate safety and health compliance requirements for work in the industry.

Endreszl goes on to point out that it should be the responsibility of the trainer to act as a medium between upper management and the technicians through advanced communication. And that this should be a two way street with workers being encouraged to feed back to management on potential risks in their daily work. This has already enabled wind farm operators to deal with issues before they become a problem.

As Endreszl points out, most companies involved in the wind industry are training their employees correctly so its crucial that these companies to share their knowledge with the wider industry in an attempt to educate and reveal simple ways to keep employees safe. Wind Energy Update have put together a meeting on September 8 9 in Dallas TX where Eric and dozens more wind safety professionals will be discussing these issues in more detail. Full details on this event can be found at http://www.windenergyupdate.com/health-safety-usa

Alternatively, to listen to the podcast this press release is based upon, simply go to the following website: http://www.windenergyupdate.com/health-safety-usa/Eric_Endreszl.shtml

For more details on the podcast or the meeting in Dallas in September contact jon(at)windenergyupdate(dot)com

###

AIB International to Implement MetricStream for Compliance and Safety Audits

Palo Alto, CA (PRWEB) March 30, 2010

AIB International, one of North America's largest providers of third-party food safety audits, recently selected MetricStream, the market leader in enterprise-wide Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) solutions, for implementing an Audit Management system to automate and streamline its food safety audits and inspections services.

AIBs services are used by many of the worlds largest food manufacturers, distributors and food service operators, including 83 of the top 100 North American food processors. Their primary objective is reducing risk and ensuring compliance with food safety and quality regulations and standards including FDA GMPs, HACCP, ISO 22000, OSHA, BRC and SQF. AIBs Gold Standard Certification Program is widely recognized as an industry benchmark for food quality and safety.

In a comprehensive evaluation, AIB reviewed several audit management products in the market on a variety of functional and technical criteria as well as the vendors understanding of risk and compliance issues related to food safety and health. MetricStream, an industry-leader in GRC Platform technology known for its superior audit management solution, emerged as the preferred choice based on its domain expertise and the strength of its technology and solution.

According to Maureen Olewnik, Vice President of the Audit and Technical Services at AIB, We chose MetricStream because their solutions are designed for a truly integrated approach for managing audits, risks, compliance and safety programs across our organizations operation. MetricStream provides a holistic view for critical decision making and we believe the solution will greatly strengthen our food safety initiatives while improving our overall goal of seeking operational efficiencies that will secure customer confidence and satisfaction.

MetricStream will enable AIB to apply industry best practices in food safety audits, inspections and compliance with an easy-to-use audit management application deployed on its Enterprise GRC Platform. The system will be used by AIB auditors who conduct audits and inspections at over 10,000 manufacturing and distribution facilities in the US and worldwide. The solution will provide workflow, collaboration and reporting capabilities to allow auditors, management and support staff to efficiently plan and schedule audits, establish inspection criteria, submit and collect audit results, track findings and issues, create audit reports and streamline inter-departmental coordination.

Carl McCauley, Vice President of Sales at MetricStream welcomed the new engagement with AIB and said, Food safety is a major concern the world over and we are extremely delighted to be partnering with one of the leading companies in this industry. For food and beverage companies, the risks from not meeting safety and compliance can be severe financially and through loss of brand equity in the market place. By unifying quality, safety, risk, audit and compliance programs on MetricStream Enterprise GRC Platform, customers can define and execute consistent and systematic processes to achieve significant performance improvements.

MetricStream provides web-based, end-to-end solutions to support compliance and quality programs for food safety. MetricStream solutions give food manufacturers and distributors the ability to collaborate internally and with their trading partners, providing real-time view into safety, compliance and quality. By unifying all quality and compliance data into one central repository, food and beverage companies can leverage robust reporting, dashboards and alert capabilities to easily identify trends, overdue actions and other performance metrics while maintaining detailed scorecards against key performance indicators (KPIs). This increases overall efficiency in their food quality and safety management program.

About MetricStream

MetricStream is a market leader in Enterprise-wide Governance, Risk, Compliance (GRC) and Quality Solutions for global corporations. MetricStream solutions are used by leading corporations such as Pfizer, Philips, AIB International, Woolworths, NASDAQ, UBS, SanDisk, BP, Subway, Fairchild Semiconductor, Hitachi and TaylorMade-Adidas Golf in diverse industries such as Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices, Automotive, Food, High Tech Manufacturing, Energy and Financial Services to manage their quality processes, regulatory and industry-mandated compliance and corporate governance initiatives, as well as by over a million compliance professionals worldwide via the http://www.ComplianceOnline.com portal. MetricStream is headquartered in Palo Alto, California and can be reached at http://www.metricstream.com.

Media contact:

pr(at)metricstream(dot)com

About AIB International

AIB International provides Food Safety Audit and Education Services worldwide to broad segments of the food manufacturing industry, including food, ingredients and beverage manufacturing, packaging production and distribution facilities. Food Safety Audit Services provided include AIB's GMP inspection and conducting audits for GFSI (BRC, SQF, FSSC 22000), ISO 19000, ISO 22000, HACCP, OSHA, AIB Gold Standard, Customer Audits and Quality System Audits. Food Safety Education is offered through public seminars, consulting, training audits, GFSI training seminars and distance learning. Additional related safety services include the Food Defense Resource Center. AIB is headquartered in Manhattan, KS and has offices in Mexico, UK and China.

Media contact:

bsoddy(at)aibonline(dot)org

###