Starting in July this year Centennial incorporated Canadian software company Dyadem’s risk assessment software into its risk management system at its operations, which it reports is already making life easier.

“Absolutely yes,” said Centennial chief risk officer John Hempenstall when asked if the system was making risk management smoother.

Dyadem’s RiskSafe7 software is being used by Centennial to conduct risk assessments and provide solutions.

Dyadem’s software also includes StatureRLM (Risk Lifestyle Management) which will be used in future by Centennial to provide additional report formats.

Risk management helps miners identify risks, understand the potential impact of those risks and then proactively make decisions on how to best manage those risks going forward.

Hempenstall told International Longwall News Dyadem’s systems were being used across Centennial for enterprise risk assessments, site business risk assessments and operational risk assessments, right through to job safety and environment analyses (JSEAs) leading to standard work procedures (SWPs).

“Within an individual minesite it is already being used on multiple risk assessments at the mines, including our longwall operations at Angus Place, Mandalong, Newstan, Springvale and other sites,” he said.

“Then you have job safety and environmental analysis and standard work procedure development which has taken place on multiple levels at multiple sites. So RiskSafe has been applied from corporation level to tradesman level.”

Prior to Dyadem’s risk assessment software package Centennial was using a combination of Excel spreadsheets and home-grown Word documents to complete risk assessments, monitor outcomes and track risk controls.

The miner works from the New South Wales Mines Department Guidelines MDG1010 for risk assessments as well as Australian Standard 4360.

Hempenstall said the new standardised system had improved Centennial’s risk management system and it was now less cumbersome.

“So now actions out of risk assessments are not forgotten,” he said.

“Things get done because out of Dyadem they go into our ‘actions required’ system with dates and they get done.”

Dyadem said most companies wanted to standardise the ways in which they understood risk and Centennial was no different.

Dyadem director of enterprise Loren Padelford said the new system allowed Centennial’s 12 facilities to share information on risks and hazards and develop risk profiles.

“Our solutions give miners like Centennial Coal visibility into the potential risks or hazards within their operating environment,” Padelford told ILN.

“So across the organisation they can quickly determine where they need to spend time, effort, money and resources. Dyadem ensures everyone uses a common platform to understand the risks.”

Padelford said risk, safety and hazard information was important to any large organisation as well as the ability to find the correct information and work with it quickly.

Centennial’s ability to have corporate governance over all the sites became difficult because there were 12 different sets of people, 12 different procedures and 12 different ways of assessing risks, according to Padelford.

Dyadem said its system allowed the miner to create a centralised registry of risks – a centralised profile of risks across all sites.

“So at site one, if something was identified that was a serious problem, as soon as it was identified the corporation would know – allowing it [the company] to make a business decision to help improve the safety of that issue,” Padelford said

Flexibility is core to the software, with the system not concentrating on any one particular risk but allowing its customers to focus on a multitude of risks.

In coal applications the system could be used to analyse data from air quality particle studies which would be used to drive a risk analysis.

Centennial said the system was operator friendly and logical, which had been the criteria stipulated to Dyadem as the system was to be used across different levels in the company.

Hempenstall said it had been a “fantastic shock” that the system was not intimidating.

Dyadem said its systems fitted into Australia’s and Centennial’s risk management approach, as they were proactive as opposed to reactive.

“Centennial Coal is very focused on being proactive and getting ahead of the risk,” Padelford said.

“They aim to be in front of any of the problems before the regulators get to them and weed out any problems before they happen.”