Tabloids and tangents

Looking for appropriate articles to link to the most recent post on health and safety in the news, I stumbled across Kipper Williams, a tabloid cartoonist. He's in the Money and Business sections of the Guardian website, and in pursuing a tangent, I uncovered a selection of his whimsical and witty work. What do you think?

Kipper Williams at www.guardian.co.uk

www.kipperwilliams.com

- Connor

Health and Safety in the News

6th January 2011

A Circus of Horrors, the acts of which include swallowing swords attached to electric drills, and fire-breathing, have been asked by officials, for the first time in 15 years, to carry out a risk assessment because of a performance in which a contorted performer smokes a cigarette while firing a bow with her feet. Read more...

There has been no significant snowfall for more than a week, and health and safety is blamed by councils across the UK for failure to collect rubbish for over four weeks in some cases. 'The lorries might have hit parked cars and there are safety concerns about heavy lifting in icy conditions.' 'Rubbish!', says Richard Littlejohn. Read more...

5th January 2011

The owner of an Indian restaurant linked to several cases of E. coli has appeared in court to admit to four food hygiene offences and the total fines have reached over £11000, showing the serious nature of the breaches and sending a clear message to businesses of the need for responsible business management. Read more...

2nd January 2011

Mile High Flights charges lovers £640 to 'join the club' aboard a specially adapted plane - but health and safety bosses at the Civil Aviation Authority have refused to renew the company's licence, saying pilots cannot keep their minds on the job. "We cast no moral judgements on what people do in their planes, but it became apparent safety criteria couldn't be met." Read more...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Eric & Bob
Post 3, Dec 10 2010

Post 1 - Click here!
Post 2 - Click here!

Allow us to introduce Ernest, a longstanding and dedicated worker at ACME Heating & Plumbing:

Click here to see the full-size image

About 1000 electrical accidents are reported to HSE every year, but there are simple precautions that can be taken to significantly reduce the risk of electrical injury - click here to go to the HSE site and find out what you can do.

Employee of the week: Ernest Rogers

By name and by nature, Ernest is sincere, wholehearted and frank - three very dangerous characteristics for a worker at ACME!

Though intimidated by Eric at times, Ernest tries his best to tell it like it is, pointing out health and safety hazards and concerns; perpetually fighting for justice and peace of mind, in the offices, the canteen, and of course the metaphorical war zone that is the factory floor.

Data Backup

Today, most companies, large and small, rely heavily on computers. It is therefore essential to have a backup strategy to prevent loss of vital information. Data loss can have a devastating effect, and may occur for any number of reasons, many of which are simply uncontrollable, such as:

• attacks from viruses and other destructive tools
• hardware failures
• accidental deletion by users, both untrained and experienced
• deliberate deletion

For most people, the importance of backing up files only becomes apparent the first time such data loss occurs. Data backup is a very simple operation to implement within an organisation, despite being overlooked by many. The first question that should be asked when looking to backup files is "How often should we backup data?" Methods and strategies will vary from large businesses utilising a client-server model to peer-to-peer networks and of course smaller non-networked environments. But if data is constantly changing and being added to, it is not infeasible to backup daily. Incremental backups (only including files changed since the last backup) might be performed daily, and full backups weekly.

A common method is via media such as tapes, CDs and external hard drives. Magnetic tapes have tremendous storage capacity but are considerably expensive. Windows-based NTBackup, up to Windows XP; and Windows Backup and Restore Center, for Vista, make it easy to transfer backup data to such external media; other operating systems have similar applications and utilities.

Other companies choose to backup using online providers such as Comodo Backup, LiveVault, MobileMe and more. Whatever the method, backup implementation is paramount for averting data loss disaster! Don't wait to get stung before making the change.

Firewalk Night

Gofal Cymru Firewalk Caerphilly (see original article below) was a huge success - there were 14 Firewalkers on the night and in total around £2500 was raised; £250 of that from one of our Solutions boys, Jonathan.

The participants were briefed beforehand on safety and given a session on the powers of positive though. Meanwhile, supporters outside the Pontygwindy Inn watched on as the Firemasters tended to the flaming coals that warmed the frosty night-time air. Eventually the first Firewalker trooped out from the inn, followed by the rest of the Fearless Fourteen. They crossed the barrier, and prepared themselves for the 20 foot of coals at 1200 degrees Fahrenheit that lay ahead. One by one, they yelled their names and battlecries, and marched down the fiery path, cheered on enthusiastically by the crowds. Thankfully no-one was burned, and some even wanted to go around again, if only to keep warm!

All in all, a fantastic night out for a fantastic cause. Congratulations to the crazy Firewalkers, their dedicated supporters, and to everybody who dug deep for Gofal Cymru.

What is quality?

The most successful organisations are those that give customers what they want. Satisfied customers are loyal to the company they feel best understand their requirements, and reciprocate the benefits they bring by recommending the company to friends. Quality is therefore about learning what works well and doing it better; finding out about what has to change to meet and exceed the expectations of the customer. The cost of improving quality can be expected to be recovered manyfold by increased sales, more satisfied customers, fewer problems and a greater competetive advantage.

Good quality management is an organisation-wide approach to understanding what customers need, and consistently and accurately delivering. It ensures the effective design of processes that verify needs, that plan product life cycle, and that design, produce and deliver the product or service.

Quality Checklist

• know what you hope to achieve and decide how you want to go about it
• learn from your experience
• use this new-found knowledge to help develop your organisation and its services
• always look to achieve continuous improvement (rinse and repeat)
• satisfy your customer as a result, and enjoy the benefits!