The shortlisted finalists in the British Precast Awards 2019 have been announced and Quinn have been named among the finalists in two separate categories.
Quinn Building Products have been shortlisted in the Digital Transformation Award category for the Quinn Safety Hub which was launched in 2018. Quinn Precast have also been named as a finalist in the Health and Safety Award category for their Bed Saw Health and Safety Enhancement Project.
The prestigious British Precast Awards recognise successes within the Precast industry and celebrate achievements in a range of categories. Speaking of the announcement, Quinn Precast’s General Manager Thomas Coyle said,
“We’re delighted to be shortlisted in both categories in this year’s awards and to be recognised for our innovation here in Quinn Precast and in the wider Quinn company. The calibre of finalists is very strong and it’s a great achievement for us to be included in the list.
It is essential that we continue to invest in our processes and technology to ensure we remain at the fore when it comes to innovation in the construction sector.
The Quinn Safety Hub was a major investment for us and has received wide recognition as a valuable health and safety management tool which will help us further improve our knowledge and understanding of all accidents, incidents and near misses, and ultimately help make a safer environment for everyone at Quinn.”
Commenting on the progress the company has made in health and safety, Gerry Clancy, Quinn’s Health and Safety Manager added,
“Both projects which have been shortlisted in this year’s awards are health and safety initiatives, which is always the number one priority for us.
We’ve invested heavily in these particular projects and the outcomes have been very positive. It’s an area we will continue to innovate in and will always aim to achieve the highest standards.”
The Digital Transformation Award is a new category for 2019 and has been created to recognise projects that involve outstanding digital transformation from business processes and digital automation in production to digital design and Building Information Modelling (BIM). The introduction of the award signifies the importance of digitalisation in the construction sector.
The Quinn Safety Hub is a new state of the art digital health and safety management solution which has been developed as part of the company’s Safer by Competence policy. The system provides a cloud-based, centralised health and safety management solution for all of Quinn Precast’s operations, which is fully integrated with the health and safety management of Quinn’s other divisions.
The project required significant financial and resource investment, collaboration with stakeholders in other Quinn divisions and involvement of many external contractors.
Quinn Precast identified a range of risks including potential exposure to noise levels up to 100 dB, water mist/dust containing Respirable Crystalline Silica (as well as possible exposure to moving blades and other risks associated with contact with moving machinery).
Having identified these risks, Quinn made several improvements, including a fully-enclosed safety cab to house the saw operator. The operator cabin isolates the operator from both physical injury and health risks associated with noise and RCS. Other improvements included a blade enclosure and the fitting of visibility aids and warning signals.
The project resulted in significantly improved health and safety standards for the saw operator and other workers in the vicinity of the machine.
The announcement of Quinn as finalists in both categories comes only days after Quinn Precast announced they have successfully achieved the prestigious ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety Management standard, the world’s first international standard. The certification recognises the most stringent management and control standards and is testament to the continued commitment to ensuring the highest standards of health and safety are in place at Quinn.