Improving the Quality of Workflows is a Means of Systematically Reducing the Risk of Injury to the Coal Mine Personnel

Abstract

Relevance of the study is due to a number of factors. Firstly, a typical trend in the activity of coal mines, especially newly opened ones, is an intensive increase in coal production in difficult geological and climatic conditions, while using more and more powerful mining equipment. Secondly, an important circumstance is the use of the shift method of personnel work, which causes its high turnover. These features predetermine an increase in the risk of injury to the coal mines employees. These trends are clearly manifested in the dynamically developing Solntsevo coal mine. In accordance with the general line of the Eastern Mining Company, aimed at further improving production efficiency and occupational safety, a risk management system for negative events is formed at the mine. At the first stage, the employees were introduced to the methodology for identifying hazardous production situations, which they tested in practice in their area of responsibility. The second stage continued mastering this methodology in assessing the risk of identified hazards and developing measures to eliminate them. At the third stage, the employees of the mine began to master the tools for improving the quality of workflows, which is based on an assessment of its main components: personnel, equipment, workflow, and its conditions. Each of these components, in turn, is evaluated against four components. The use of this toolkit allows to identify «narrow» links in the workflow, unsafe operations and actions, the elimination of which reduces the risks of negative events and removes obstacles to efficient work. When testing this toolkit, critical risks were identified, the factors that cause them, measures were developed and taken for implementation to ensure a systematic increase in employee safety when performing the specific operations.