ANNISTON ARMY DEPOT, Ala. -- A safety management system is a set of processes and tools to manage a safety program, while meeting legal, regulatory and customer requirements.

It also provides standard processes on identifying hazards and placing the correct controls to manage them, which can help to:

• Reduce workplace accidents, cutting related costs and downtime.

• Enhance accident investigation.

• Establish a positive health and safety culture.

• Provide a framework to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.

Anniston Army Depot attained OHSAS 18001 certification in 2007. This is an international safety management standard, which identifies the requirements and good practices for any size of organization.

In March 2018, ISO 45001, an ISO standard for occupational health and safety management systems was published. There is a three year time frame for organizations to migrate from OHSAS 18001 to the new ISO 45001.

ISO 45001 for occupational health and safety is similar to the ISO 9001 standard for quality and ISO 14001 standard for environmental programs, standards currently in place at ANAD.

ISO 45001 includes many of the same elements as OHSAS 18001 with structural changes similar to the other ISO standards, to ease migration.

Some of the changes include:

• Context of the organization: The organization shall determine internal and external issues relevant to its purpose and affecting its ability to achieve the intended outcome(s) of its OH&S management system.

• Understanding the needs and expectations of workers and other interested parties: interested parties are workers, suppliers, subcontractors, clients and regulatory authorities.

• Risk and opportunities: companies are to determine, consider and, where necessary, take action to address any risks or opportunities which may impact, either positively or negatively, the ability of the management system to deliver its intended results, including enhanced health and safety at the workplace.

• Leadership and management commitment has stronger emphasis on top management to actively engage and take accountability for the effectiveness of the management system.

ANAD is in the process of migrating from OHSAS 18001 to the new ISO 45001 standard. Some of the processes the depot has established to support this migration include the increased use of the Safety Intelex Automated Reporting System to document inspection non-conformances, safety violations, program audits and management walkthroughs.

Leadership and management walkthroughs at all levels have increased to promote engagement and accountability.