We discuss the following topics in this blog:
- Abhay – Safety Culture Transformation.
- Reason Abhay came into being.
- Key Highlights of Abhay.
In addition to these topics, we shall also be answering the following FAQs:
- What is WiFi?
- What is an Optical Fibre Cable?
Contents
Overview
In manufacturing, while you continue driving business efficiently through your products, ensuring that your people are safe will in turn ensure your profits keep growing. ‘Prevention is better than cure’. We all have heard it. Hence, being proactive about health and safety measures is a compulsory step every organisation, must take, in order to prevent any disaster or unforeseen situation. Sterlite tech, an organisation with state-of-the-art manufacturing units at 7 locations including China, Brazil, and Italy, is particular about its safety initiatives, paying great attention to employee welfare. One such initiative is Project Abhay. Situated in the city of gates Aurangabad, Maharashtra, Sterlite Tech’s optical fibre facilities are driving this program to reach a ZERO harm work environment. In conjunction with DuPont, world leader in safety culture, Sterlite Tech has launched project Abhay taking the overall company’s culture to new heights.
Abhay: Safety Culture Transformation
For a manufacturing entity, in its journey of exponential growth, it becomes increasingly important to create a workspace that meets world-class safety standards. And at Sterlite Tech safety is a MUST. The idea is to cultivate a mind-set of systematic safety and reliability that will ensure the well-being of every employee and all associates and partners who work with Sterlite Tech. Project Abhay (meaning ‘Bravery’), the name suggested by employees, is this engagement with DuPont, for Safety Culture Transformation.
Why Did Abhay Come into Being?
Over the last decade Sterlite Tech’s manufacturing and business operations have grown multi folds. The OF capacity is on the road to expansion from 30 mn fkm to 50 mn fkm. However, with such a scale of expansion, the chances of risk and hazard too tend to increase. Acknowledging this, the leadership paid closer attention to strengthening the safety culture and introduced this initiative. While manufacturing and growth continue to scale up, the ZERO harm goal becomes more and more solid. The goal incorporates human injury, environmental impact or property damage.
Key Highlights
An initiative enabling a secure work environment, Abhay incorporates the following key features:
- Identification and mitigation of key risks around daily activities to yield tangible safety performance improvement by reducing intolerable risk exposures
- Enhancement of safety leadership capability to drive effective safety management system implementation and promote a “Safety Culture” in Sterlite Tech Operations.
- Increase of risk awareness and development of adequate competencies from Senior Management down to shop floor to ensure effective discipline and implementation
- Accomplishment of long term sustainability of results by strengthening the safety culture across the organization
What is the Status Quo?
As this initiative gains momentum, peoples’ perception of the need for safety sees more seriousness. Safety is no longer a choice. With this in mind, employees at the plants are getting trained on specific basic tools & standards. At the greenfield facility, DuPont recommendations raised out of through PSSR, PHA & HAZOP, too have started seeing implementation. At the running plants, several employees completed their standard training. PIC (Plant Implementation Committee) & Standard Sub-Committees have begun operations in their respective areas. Certain new STERLITE TECH safety standards too are in the process of establishment, per DuPont requirements.
Employees on Abhay
Employee participation in Abhay has been terrific. People are looking at safety as their own responsibility and are willing to take appropriate action. This is, a significant step as far as culture transformation at Sterlite Tech is concerned. With complete confidence in DuPont’s methodology, the folks at Sterlite Tech are advancing with a fresh vision towards a safer and more secure work environment. In addition, considering environmental aspects as one of the HRAs (High Risk Activities), Sterlite Tech will evaluate barrier health management to avoid any environmental emission.
FAQs
What is WiFi?
Put simply, WiFi is a technology that uses radio waves to create a wireless network through which devices like mobile phones, computers, printers, etc., connect to the internet. A wireless router is needed to establish a WiFi hotspot that people in its vicinity may use to access internet services. You’re sure to have encountered such a WiFi hotspot in houses, offices, restaurants, etc.
To get a little more technical, WiFi works by enabling a Wireless Local Area Network or WLAN that allows devices connected to it to exchange signals with the internet via a router. The frequencies of these signals are either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz bandwidths. These frequencies are much higher than those transmitted to or by radios, mobile phones, and televisions since WiFi signals need to carry significantly higher amounts of data. The networking standards are variants of 802.11, of which there are several (802.11a, 802.11b, 801.11g, etc.).
What is an Optical Fibre Cable?
An optical fibre cable is a cable type that has a few to hundreds of optical fibres bundled together within a protective plastic coating. They help carry digital data in the form of light pulses across large distances at faster speeds. For this, they need to be installed or deployed either underground or aerially. Standalone fibres cannot be buried or hanged so fibres are bunched together as cables for the transmission of data.
This is done to protect the fibre from stress, moisture, temperature changes and other externalities. There are three main components of a optical fibre cable, core (It carries the light and is made of pure silicon dioxide (SiO2) with dopants such as germania, phosphorous pentoxide, or alumina to raise the refractive index; Typical glass cores range from as small as 3.7um up to 200um), Cladding (Cladding surrounds the core and has a lower refractive index than the core, it is also made from the same material as the core; 1% refractive index difference is maintained between the core and cladding; Two commonly used diameters are 125µm and 140µm) and Coating (Protective layer that absorbs shocks, physical damage and moisture; The outside diameter of the coating is typically either 250µm or 500µm; Commonly used material for coatings are acrylate,Silicone, carbon, and polyimide).
An optical fibre cable is made up of the following components: Optical fibres – ranging from one to many. Buffer tubes (with different settings), for protection and cushioning of the fibre. Water protection in the tubes – wet or dry. A central strength member (CSM) is the backbone of all cables. Armoured tapes for stranding to bunch the buffer tubes and strength members together. Sheathing or final covering to provide further protection.
The five main reasons that make this technology innovation disruptive are fast communication speed, infinite bandwidth & capacity, low interference, high tensile strength and secure communication. The major usescases of optical fibre cables include intenet connectivity, computer networking, surgery & dentistry, automotive industry, telephony, lighting & decorations, mechanical inspections, cable television, military applications and space.
