University Procurement, Facilities Management And Planning, Health And Safety Policy, Operational Planning, Workplace Inspections, Transformational Role Of OM, Collaborative Activities For EAL Learners

Fair and reasonable procurement

 Procurement of goods and services for the university must be conducted in an open and competitive environment to ensure that prices paid are fair and reasonable.  Purchasing activities are conducted in central Procurement Services as well as by academic and administrative departmental employees.  Purchasing activities include obligations for proper transaction documentation, fiscal responsibility, ethical behavior, adherence to federal and state government regulations, and compliance with university By-laws and policies. 

Procurement Services provides support to the university community in the selection, acquisition, use and disposal of goods and services by:

• Maximizing the university’s purchasing power by focusing on strategic sourcing and obtaining the best value
• Leveraging its expertise in contract negotiations and supplier management to advantage the university
• Streamlining processes and investing in new technologies to provide administrative efficiencies.
• Ensuring that purchases are made in accordance with all applicable university By-laws, laws, regulations, codes, and ordinances
• Minimizing risk exposure while maintaining flexibility in procurement activity 

Facilities Management and Planning is committed to providing quality service related to the construction, operation, cleaning and utilization of the University’s facilities.  We work with the University community, and external organizations to develop and improve methods and strategies utilized to meet the needs of our community.  To protect University facilities, faculty, staff, students and visitors, it is necessary for Facilities Management and Planning to establish and/or administer a large number of policies and procedures related primarily to the construction, alteration and operation of facilities.

From time to time these policies will be revised and new ones will be added. We will inform the University community of  changes through postings on this web site, Today at Carleton and This is Carleton publications.

Maintenance of facilities and equipment in good working condition is essential to achieve specified level of quality and reliability and efficient working. Plant maintenance is an important service function of an efficient production system. It helps in maintaining and increasing the operational efficiency of plant facilities and thus contributes to revenue by reducing the operating costs and increasing the effectiveness of production. 

A policy is a written statement, usually comprises three elements:

• a statement section (often a single page) detailing how safety will be managed and that demonstrates the organisation’s commitment to health and safety
• an organisation section that details where responsibilities are allocated and how employees fit into the overall safety management system
• an arrangements section that contains details of how specific activities and functions are managed.

This arrangements section could include such matters as risk assessments, fire safety, first aid, accident reporting, electrical safety, work equipment, hazardous substances, manual handling and other workplace issues.

In larger organisations the arrangements section may refer to other documents, such as safety manuals or safe systems of work.  

 Why have a health and safety policy?

All organisations employing five or more people must have a written Health and Safety Policy statement. The policy should cover all aspects of the organisation and be relevant to all employees.

A Health and Safety Policy demonstrates how seriously an organisation takes its health and safety responsibilities. A good policy will show how the organisation protects those who could be affected by its activities.

Facilities management and planning policies

The policy should be of an appropriate length and relevance to the activities and size of the organisation.  

An organisation should carry out an initial review of the safety and health management system, and follow this up with periodic reviews. The initial review should compare existing safety and health practice with:

• the requirements of safety and health legislation
• the provisions set out in the organisation’s Safety Statement
• safety and health guidance in the organisation
• existing authoritative and published safety and health guidance
• best practice in the organisation’s employment sector

The following checklist may be used for the review

• Is the Safety Statement clear and concise so that it can be read and understood by those who may be at risk?
• Are Risk Assessments being carried out on a regular basis as risks change and are the necessary improvements made to keep the safety and health management system up to date?
• Are the necessary safety control measures required for a safe workplace identified and implemented, e.g. the provision of safe access and egress, good housekeeping, clear passageways and internal traffic control?
• Are written safe procedures for those operations that require them available, e.g. for routine processing and ancillary activities, handling and using chemicals, preventive maintenance, plant and equipment breakdown maintenance, accident and ill-health investigations, emergency planning, assessment of personal protective equipment (PPE) requirements?
• Do safety consultation, employee participation and representation procedures exist and are these procedures effective, e.g. is there good co-operation between employer, managers and employees on safety and health issues at the workplace? Is there a safety committee in existence and if so does it comply with the 2005 Act requirements? Are safety committee meetings constructive with meeting reports and follow-up action lists? Is the safety representative or representatives involved at every stage of the safety consultation process?

The primary financial link between a strategic plan and an operational plan is the establishment of a departmental budget. The strategic plan gives a budget estimate that is based on projected revenue. The operational plan gives a more accurate number that can be used to gauge the success of a strategic plan. If the operational budget is more than the strategic plan provides for, then the company needs to work to bring the two numbers more in line.

An operational plan is used to determine job duties and the proper use of company resources, such as equipment and facilities. A strategic plan outlines what kind of resource allocation is needed to achieve the goals of the plan. The operational and strategic plan are then put side-by-side to determine the most effective allocation of resources for each department while pursuing the objectives of a strategic plan (Fabius et al. 2015).

Operational plans base their needs on performance management numbers. For example, if the manufacturing department is expected to produce 20 units an hour, but the current personnel only allows for 15 units an hour, then that performance management number dictates the need for more personnel. Those performance management numbers are set by the projections in the company strategic plans. 

Monitoring is only useful if it is built into the execution phase at the beginning. There is no point to a monitoring activity if all the work has been completed already and all the resources wasted (Subramaniam et al. 2014). A system needs to be set in place for this during the planning phase and followed up on strongly. 

It is vital to identify which indicators are to be measured. These should be noted in the planning document and communicated with all team members and stakeholders. Acceptable levels of performance should also be identified, so that it is clearly understood when a red flag needs to be raised. A frequency of reporting as well as a format needs to be decided upon and clearly communicated to all those who will be expected to issue reports. 

Health and safety policies and regulations

If the monitoring framework if clearly defined, then there may not be any need for huge amounts of data collection. Too much irrelevant data will only create confusion and add no value. Quality of data to ensure relevance needs to be the focus of any data collection efforts. 

Decide initially all acceptable methods of data collection. A wide variety can be used including questionnaires, surveys and focus groups. 

Unless someone is assigned the task of monitoring specifically, it is an activity that can slip unnoticed into cracks. It is pertinent to assign a specific person for each type of reporting or monitoring activity and to build this task into their own personal deliverables. 

Those tagged with reporting should be told clearly who they are to report to. Reports are tailored according to the management level they are being reviewed by. A senior management team may only need high level timelines, results and resource consumption data, while a middle management group or project team itself may need minute details of each task achieved or delayed.  

Workplace inspections help prevent incidents, injuries and illnesses. Through a critical examination of the workplace, inspections help to identify and record hazards for corrective action. Health and safety committees can help plan, conduct, report and monitor inspections. Regular workplace inspections are an important part of the overall occupational health and safety program and management system, if present. 

What is the purpose of inspections?

Inspections are important as they allow you to:

• listen to the concerns of workers and supervisors
• gain further understanding of jobs and tasks
• identify existing and potential hazards
• determine underlying causes of hazards
• recommend corrective action
• monitor steps taken to eliminate hazards or control the risk (e.g., engineering controls, administrative controls, policies, procedures, personal protective equipment)

Look at all workplace elements – the people, the environment, the equipment and the process. The environment includes such hazards as noise, vibration, lighting, temperature, and ventilation. Equipment includes materials, tools and apparatus for producing a product or a service. The process involves how the worker interacts with the other elements in a series of tasks or operations.

What types of hazards do we look for in a workplace?

Types of workplace hazards include:

• Safety hazards such as those caused by inadequate machine guards, unsafe workplace conditions, unsafe work practices.
• Biological hazards caused by organisms such as viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites.
• Chemical hazards caused by a solid, liquid, vapour, gas, dust, fume or mist. 

The trend in universities today is shifting towards an engagement in marketing and branding programs. The purpose is often to enhance the reputation of the university and to have a positive influence on university ranking. Greater competition existing today is to attract the best and brightest students. A university is no longer just an institution of higher learning but also a business. Millions of dollars are spent by universities trying to burnish their image and enhance their position in these rankings. Both students and universities are adopting the mantra suggested by Bunzel: “Markets in which small differences in performance give rise to enormous differences in reward 

Operational planning and resource allocation

At a manufacturing plant the transformation is the physical change of raw materials into products, such as transforming steel into automobiles, cloth into jackets, or plastic into toys. This is equally true of service organizations. At a university OM is involved in organizing resources, such as faculty, curriculum, and facilities, to transform high school students into college graduates. At an airline it involves transporting passengers and their luggage from one location to another.

The transformation role of OM makes this function the “engine room” of the organization. As a result it is directly responsible for many decisions and activities that give rise to product design and delivery problems. The design and management of operations strongly influence how much material resources are consumed to manufacture goods or deliver a service, making sure that there is enough inventory to produce the quantities that need to be delivered to the customer, and ensuring that what is made is in fact what the customer wants. Many of these decisions can be costly (Watson and Swanberg 2013). It is for this reason that OM is a function companies go to in order to improve performance and the financial bottom line. 

Collaborative activities are great for EAL learners because they encourage speaking and listening, and particularly exploratory talk which is really important for language development. They are also very useful in supporting access to the curriculum. Working with a partner or in a small group allows learners to feel more confident, and the language is being used for a specific purpose rather than out of context.

It is important to consider the grouping of learners carefully, for example placing early stage bilingual learners with peers who can provide good models of English, and/or share the same first language. Group work can be organized to ensure that all members of each group have a role to play and are expected to participate. Collaborative activities help learners to understand the importance of active listening.

Reference:

Becker, F., 2013. Integrated portfolio strategies for dynamic organizations. Facilities.

Loeppke, R.R., Hohn, T., Baase, C., Bunn, W.B., Burton, W.N., Eisenberg, B.S., Ennis, T., Fabius, R., Hawkins, R.J., Hudson, T.W. and Hymel, P.A., 2015. Integrating health and safety in the workplace: how closely aligning health and safety strategies can yield measurable benefits. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 57(5), pp.585-597.

Subramaniam, C., Mohd Shamsudin, F., Zin, M., Lazim, M., Ibrahim, H., Mad Lazim, H., Aziz, A. and Shah, F., 2014. Validating Workplace Safety Scale (WSS) and its influence on workplace safety sustainability in the health care sector.

Watson, L. and Swanberg, J.E., 2013. Flexible workplace solutions for low-wage hourly workers: A framework for a national conversation. Am. U. Labor & Emp. LF, 3, p.i.