APM Fossil North and GSSI Team Up with GE Site Personnel to Complete a Hazard Hunt

When you need commitment to a job done right, APM delivers.  Our APM Fossil team from the North Region recently partnered with our Global Safety Sources (GSSI) team and GE on their jobsite at Dominion-Fairless to complete a “Hazard Hunt” or walk-through audit on the steam turbine deck. The hunt team, led by APM Superintendent, Mike Ornoski, GSSI Safety Specialist, Ed Geers, and GE Contract Performance Manager, Cal McGinley, had the goal of checking the deck for housekeeping and means of egress, since the areas had become crowded with all of the parts and equipment that had been removed from the unit. Housekeeping had been well maintained by the crew, but the team felt that completing an audit would be an appropriate measure to maximize safety, quality and productivity. During their hunt, they identified 23 carpenter scaffold nails lying near the fenced walkway on the side of the open steam turbine. This became a major concern since the machine was being reassembled and any one of the nails identified could have become foreign material.  Promoting safety and avoiding Foreign Material Exclusion (FME) are primary concerns, so this hunt proved to be a very beneficial preventative measure. The situation was brought to the attention of the customer representative overseeing the steam turbine maintenance. A meeting was called to remind all personnel on the site to avoid these types of errors and to continue to be mindful of all objects, ensuring that everything is in a proper place. GE EHS Services Expert, Bram Reed, rewarded the team’s efforts with his remarks, “Excellent hunt on a very important subject. FME and other quality issues can often be both direct and indirect safety hazards to our employees. Anytime we have to go back into a machine to correct a quality issue, we expose our employees to undue risks. Much better to get out clean the first time! Thanks for all you and the entire team are doing each day to keep everyone safe at Fairless.” We extend our appreciation to this team and everyone else supporting the job for their allegiance to safety and quality!