New electrical safety routines give good results

The work of auditing electrical safety within Ragn-Sells was started in 2014.  

– We have a special situation at Ragn-Sells because we have over 60 different facilities throughout the country, says Sofia Blomdal, who is the working environment manager at Ragn-Sells. For us, it was important to identify our compliance with electrical legislation, and we discovered that different situations prevailed at the various plants. Following a full audit of electrical safety at all the operations and at all levels, we started to discuss which route Ragn-Sells should take, says Sofia.  

The working environment team started compiling a documentation base as a guarantee of compliance with electrical legislation.  

– When we started this work, we saw synergetic effects from our working environment activities, since the electrical legislation is based on working environment legislation.

Common working procedures at all facilities

In order to put in place an overall level of supervision, Jörgen Fredriksson was appointed electrical safety manager within Ragn-Sells. A contract was also signed with Assemblin, which has a presence nationwide.  

– Introduction of the new legislation in 2017 involved a transition from installer responsibility to owner responsibility. This meant that Ragn-Sells, as the owner of an electrical installation, was now obliged to ensure the safety of its environment. Since Ragn-Sells has over 60 different installations, it has been a challenge to put in place overall supervision of all the facilities, but we have gone from having a level of supervision that was not too good, to one that is actually good, says Jörgen Fredriksson.  

There is now a common approach to working with electrical safety at Ragn-Sells. Every plant has an electrical manager who ensures compliance with the overall regulations that are in place.  

– Just like in the rest of our safety work, we have placed great emphasis on improving expertise with respect to electricity and in working with good examples instead of pointers. Jörgen has done a fantastic job and integrating electrical safety into our systematic working environment activities is a winning concept. Thanks to clear regulations and common routines and working procedures, everyone knows what they are supposed to do – and what they shouldn’t do, says Sofia Blomdal.  

Has gained understanding and acceptance

Ragn-Sells’ successful electrical safety work has been noticed by AEC, which is providing training in electrical safety, and Elektriska nämnden, which is conducting external audits of the plants.   

– I followed Ragn-Sells’ journey when they were building up electrical safety within their organisation. They have set about this with very serious intent and have also really brought about a change. By specifically and systematically clarifying what is set out in the regulations and the areas of responsibility that there are, Jörgen has won both understanding and acceptance internally, and it’s been great to follow that, says Ingemar Fransson of AEC.  

Fredrik Bäckman, an inspection engineer who performs external audits on behalf of Elektriska Nämnden, is also happy with Ragn-Sells’ electrical safety work.  

– It is clear that Ragn-Sells is taking this seriously, says Fredrik Bäckman. For me as an inspector, it’s good to see an organisation that really wants to do the right thing and that doesn’t just think of this as an expense. It’s actually the other way around, because by keeping a check on electrical safety at the plant, you reduce the risk of shut-downs.