A Safety Audit Report on Alif Garments Ltd.

Submitted to: Dr. Md.Mamunur

Rashid, Management Counselor

Submitted by:
Mallik Shaheed Hussain .
ID: 14DH174,
Bangladesh Institute of Management
Batch: Evening 03(2014), PGD-HRM

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Dated: 26 July, 2014

Dr. Md.Mamunur Rashid

Management Counselor
Bangladesh Institute of Management
Dhaka.

Subject: A Safety Audit report on Alif Garments Ltd”

Dear Sir,

With due respect, I am pleased to present you this report on A Safety Audit
report on Alif Garments Ltd, 21/22, Babar Road Block-B, Mohammadpur ,
Dhaka, Bangladesh, . as an appropriate requirement of the subject on
“Industrial Safety, Health and Welfare”. Working for this audit has been an
interesting and informative experience for me. I have learnt many
unidentified facts about Garments Industry, the Factory Environment,
Factors that must be analyzed for existing Manufacturing plant in terms of
Safety & Health scenarios which I believe will be infinitely useful in my
professional career in the near future.
I have immensely enjoyed working on this report and hope that my work
will meet the level of your expectations.

Thanking you.

Sincerely yours,

Mallik Shaheed Hussain

PGD-HRM
ID: 14DH174
Batch: Evening 03

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 Acknowledgement

In preparing this assignment the enthusiastic cooperation from the Alif

Garments Ltd Address: 21/22, Babar Road Block-B, Mohammadpur Dhaka
Bangladesh, employees as well as Management and the Insightful,
Consistence, Diversified and Creative guidance of Dr. Md.Mamunur
Rashid, were the two most notable and remarkable points. It was a pleasant
experience conducting the safety audit in a working factory without much
encumbrance. I feel proud of myself to be a part of this Safety Audit.

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 Table of Contents

Sl. Contents Page No

01 Abstract , Introduction 05

02 Origin, Objective, Specific Objective 08

03 Methodology, Scope, Drawback 09

04 Paraphernalia/Equipment 10

05 Job based Analysis 11

06 Location based Analysis 12

07 PPE and Others 14

08 Electrical Wiring, Machine Safety 15

09 Summary of Fire Safety Report 20

10 Observations & Recommendations: 21

11 Executive Summary 22

12 Appendix: 23

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Abstract

Readymade garments are the most important export item from Bangladesh,
yet the working conditions and fire safety records in the factories are often
not up to the standard. Despite a number of initiatives to curb fire accidents
in the garment industry, there are still a significant number of fire
occurrences in this industry. Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive
statistics on the current status of fire provisions and management practices in
the readymade garment factories in Bangladesh. Given the management
practices (soft issues) are often as important as structural fire safety
measures, yet difficult to regulate, this paper develops a Fire Risk Index
(FRI), the first of its kind in Bangladesh, for soft parameters in the garment
industry. FRI for 60 random garment factories are developed through
surprise inspections to understand the current status of fire risk due to
inadequacies in the soft parameters. Results show that the mean FRI is 2.8
on a scale of 5.0, which indicates an alarming condition. Locked exit doors,
lack of emergency announcement system and lack of fire drills are the three
worst performers among the 24 investigated parameters and require
immediate attention from the regulators and stakeholders. We also observed
a U-shaped relationship between FRI and factory size. Factories that are
members of the industry’s trade lobby generally have better fire safety
practices than the non-members. Given the importance of the readymade
garment sector in many developing countries, poor fire safety record and
lack of information of fire safety, our approach of developing an FRI for the
industry can be very useful to understand the immediate concerns and thus
to curb fatalities and injuries from fire accidents in this sector.

1. Introduction
Readymade garments are the largest export sector in Bangladesh, with more
than 78% of the country’s total foreign earnings generated from this sector.
Bangladesh is also the second largest apparel exporter in the world with a

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total export of USD $17.91 billion in the fiscal year of 2010-11 (BGMEA
2012). The garment sector has enjoyed a significant growth in Bangladesh
for the last three decades. From a humble beginning of 12 enterprises in
1978, the garment industry currently consists of 4,500 factories of various

sizes (Muhammad 2011), although around 3,500 are currently operating

(Prothom Alo 2013). Almost all of these factories are distributed primarily
in the two of the largest cities – Dhaka, the capital and Chittagong, with
Dhaka hosting over 70% (Muhammad 2011). Since this is a highly labor
intensive industry (hence Bangladesh's competitive advantage through its
abundant supply of unskilled cheap labor) the sector is also the largest
industrial employer in the country with around 3.6 million people directly
working in these factories. Inclusion of backward and forward linkages
would further increase the number of employees dependant on this sector.
Unfortunately, given the labor intensive nature of the industry, the density of
workers on factory floors is very high. This high density of workers results
in a large number of injuries and fatalities in the event of an accident.
The readymade garment industry is a highly competitive industry and cost-
saving is highly valued, but, given the lack of a safety culture in the country
in general, cost-cutting measures often affect the health and safety of the
workers. Clothing is easily flammable and as such fire is one of the most
frequent and damage inducing accidents in these factories in Bangladesh.
Fire is also purported to be the largest cause of on-the-job injuries and
fatalities in this sector.1 Each new incident of fire and related damage

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adversely affects the reputation of the industry abroad, especially since the
working conditions in the manufacturing sectors in the developing countries
is a general cause of concern in many developed countries. Given the
importance of fire safety in the garment sector, there have been concerted
efforts from the government, the industry lobby (Bangladesh Garments
Manufacturers and Exporters Associations, BGMEA) and the international
buyers of the apparel products, to improve the fire safety culture and this has
indeed reduced the fire incidents and losses significantly.
However, the battle has not been fully won yet. Despite the various
measures, rules and regulations implemented in the past decades, there are
still several instances of fire outbreak in the garment factories every year,
resulting in significant losses of lives, livelihoods (through injuries),
equipments and materials (Ahmed and Hossain 2009). These incidents raise
questions about the effectiveness of existing fire prevention and fire fighting
rules, regulations and practices and whether more could be done to limit fire
occurrences and fire induced losses of lives and injuries. Especially,
enforcement of the rules and regulations and day-to-day health and safety
management practices on factory floor is a major issue. In order to improve
the fire safety in this industry, it is important to understand and quantify the
current state of affair in fire safety of the garments factories in the country.
As is common in any developing country, there is a lack of data on fire
safety in Bangladesh, and, although there are a few studies on fire safety
status in general (e.g. Islam and Adri 2008), no comprehensive fire safety
assessment of the garment factories were undertaken before. In the wake of a
recent fire disaster at a garment factory that killed more than 100 factory
workers (BBC 2012a), fire safety evaluation of the industry became even
more important.
Accordingly, this research investigates a 'random' sample of garment
factories from two regions within Dhaka city to assess their current fire
safety status. We develop a fire safety index (first of its kind in Bangladesh)
based on various parameters which are weighted using experts’ opinion in
order to rate the factories. Special emphasis of the current work is on
understanding the status of the ‘soft’ parameters in fire safety management
(e.g. whether there is water in the dedicated water tank for firefighting at the
time of inspection) rather than on the ‘hard’ parameters (e.g. whether there is
a dedicated water tank for firefighting), which is often the focus of the fire
safety certification process.
We are also interested in understanding if any of the soft parameters are
uniformly poor across all factories and if there is a relationship between the
fire safety/risk status with the size or location or other characteristics of the

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factories. Knowledge about such parameters or potential relationships will
allow regulators and policy makers to narrow their focus on the specific
Ready made garment Factory.

Ensuring fire safety in this industry. To our knowledge, such a relationship

was not addressed in fire safety literature before. Also, given the poor
working conditions in the garment sector in many other developing countries
and the importance of fire safety in improving the working conditions, this
research has practical implications and applications beyond Bangladesh.2
This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 discusses the background and
importance of fire safety in the context of garment industries in Bangladesh.
Section 3 presents the research methodology, describing the choice of
parameters, development of the fire safety index and data collection process.
Section 4 presents the results, while section 5 concludes.

Origin:

This report has been prepared for Dr. Md.Mamunur Rashid, as an

appropriate requirement of the subject “Industrial Safety, Health &
Welfare”.

Objective:

Broad Objective: Prepare a report on the safety audit on an industry or

factory, identifying the areas of improvement on safety through
Audit/Observation.

Specific Objective:

1. Risk/Hazard Assessment and analysis

i. Equipment based analysis
ii. Job based analysis
iii. Location based analysis
2. Identifying the presence of resources including PPE(Personal
Protective Equipment) etc.
3. Checking on factory premises including factory access, weigh bridge
area, roads, lanes and cleanliness related to Health Hazard.
4. Preparing Accident record register in MS Excel

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 5. Factory Building design review & recommendation
6. Electrical Safety assessment & recommendation
7. Machine Safety assessment & recommendation
8. Identification and recommendation for occupational health
9. Evaluation of Fire fighting training & Drill

Methodology:

This safety audit was conducted on Alif Garments Ltd at 21/22, Babar Road
Block-B, Mohammadpur Dhaka Bangladesh,. The Data Collection process
was through primary sources (Face to Face interviews, Department wise
Team meeting, and random sampling of the factory staffs) and physical
observations of the factory premise. No secondary data was used.

Scope:

The scope of the report is to analyze the safety awareness and safety
condition of a Ready made garment Factory resulting in finding non-
compliance issues and recommendations for correcting those issues to
elevate or upgrade the safety scenario in working and operating the said
Ready made garment Factory.

Drawback:

Comparing the industry was difficult resulting in vague determination of the

probability of implementing the recommendations for improving the safety
of the Pharmaceutical Company.

The findings of the safety audit are listed below. Only the non-compliance
issues are mentioned with suggested recommendations to improve the issues
with further relevant comments.

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GENERAL INFORMATION
Factory Name: Alif Garments Ltd
Address: 21/22, Babar Road Block-B,
Mohammodpur, Dhaka
Country:
Bangladesh
City:
Dhaka
Zip Code: 1207
Audit Duration: 1 Days

Re-Audit: Re- Audit After 0 Months

Draft Report Date: 12/07/2014

Final Report Date: 12/08/2014

Are all Action Items

From Previous
Assessment
Completed? Yes

Buildings in Complex: There is only one building in the premise used for
production.

Is the building(s) owned

or rented by the Factory: Owned

Number of Building
Levels (Stories):Main Building/Production building:- Height from ground
level to roof: 21 m (69 ft), Highest occupied floor level:
18.29 m (60 ft), Stories above grade: 6 Stories below grade: 0 Occupied
levels: 6
Approximate
Building Area (SF): Main Building Area: 20500 sft.
Date of Building
Construction: 22.06.1983

Date of Last Building April, 2014

Renovation/Addition:

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Ancillary Structures in
Complex: No ancillary structures in complex.

Approximate Ancillary
Structures Area (SF): No ancillary structures in complex.
Number of Occupants: Total occupant: 350, Main building ground
floor: 11,1st floor: 66 , 2nd floor: 95, 3rd floor: 95, 4th floor: 27, 5th

1. Paraphernalia/Equipment

SL Non Compliance Action Plan Comment

1. No Sprinkler System Installment of Sprinkler System Only Firefighting

covering the Pharma, binding and equipment present fire
end product storage areas. extinguish

2. No Smoke or Heat Installment of inter-zone smoke

Detector detector in all areas including raw
material storage specially paint and NA
lubricant storage.

3. No high quantity fire Installment of water hose for Even though it can be
prevention instrument emergency fire fighting. Already inconvenient for raw
present(i.e Water there is a water hose of small materials (pharma), it
hydrant or water hose quantity which is not sufficient for
is recommended that
coil) full coverage. at least two point to be
installed as front and
back point for water
output.
4. Secondary Equipment -Installment of Sand Only fire extinguisher
for chemical fire or bucket( Minimum requirement) is avialble as a
chemical hazard which - Already have sufficient storage of primary prevention
is not sufficient as per Rubber Boot and gloves for equipment.
standard bench mark. chemical handling(As a safety
measure)

5. No fire alarm Installment of Fire Alarm for each

zone including emergency lights. NA

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 2. Job based Analysis

SL Non Action Plan Comment

Compliance
1. No Dedicated Training and assigning dedicated employee Regular Drill
employee role for rescue, medical & fire fighting awareness should be
& among employees. conducted.
responsibility
for emergency
fire fighting.
2. No defined Training and assigning dedicated employee Regular Drill
employee role for rescue, medical & fire fighting awareness should be
and among employees. conducted.
responsibility
for emergency
escape
assignment or
schedule.

3. No rescue and Training and assigning dedicated employee Regular Drill

medical detail for rescue, medical & fire fighting awareness should be
among among employees. conducted.
employees in
case of
emergency.
4. No emergency Should implement emergency prevention Implementatio
prevention plan plan including: n of Health &
i. Major work place hazards Safety
ii. Personnel responsible for various committee is
emergency procedures highly
iii. Housekeeping on flammable or Recommended
combustible raw materials and
waste
iv. Regular training & Drill on
emergency.
5. No emergency Should implement emergency response plan Implementatio
response including: n of
procedure i. Personnel responsible for various Emergency

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 emergency procedure. response
ii. Regular training & drill on emergency committee is
procedures. recommended

6. No First aid Conducting regular first aid training and A well

training designation of primary responsible for First experienced
Aid. Training
Manager (First
Aid) should be
appointed as
contact basis.

3. Location based Analysis:

Sl Non Compliance Action Plan Comment

1. Exit: Collapsible Gate Installation of Two collapsible gate

with down sliding “Outward Opening with shutters: One
shutter Door” will be optimum front, One back
even though the gates
are always open while
operation goes on.
2. Ventilation: No big Installation of big Only possible place
ventilation fan for exhaust fan at window in the wall for
proper air flow(only height(it will reduce heat exhaust fan is the
small ventilators with while operation and wall adjacent to the
small exhaust fans on reduce chemical fumes road, the second wall
walls adjacent to the from ink & thinner from is blocked by another
roof) inhaling). building).
3. Space: Placement of Enlargement of storage NA
raw and output for season of high output
material (paper) often so that paper can mainly
hinders movement and be stored in storage, not
evacuation route. in the production area or
beside the machines.
4. Space planning: Space Thinning out the It will reduce
is used way over the machines and acquiring accident, free up

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 limit of optimal use, additional space for space for emergency
resulting congested more spacious storage pathways and reduce
space because of place. heat.
machineries.
5. No secondary Implementation of Separation &
containment procedure proper containment minimal divider
or separate place for procedure with different between chemical
chemicals. types of chemicals as types will suffice.
well as separate storage Separation of
place. chemical,
machineries and
papers is mandatory.
6. Building integrity: No It is recommended that Major Re-
approval by concerned the company arrange an Engineering works is
authority for building inspection by the strongly
construction for this relevant authority for the recommended.
particular production premise and take
facility. No occupancy necessary steps to ensure
certificate either. building integrity.
7. No environment Acquisition of Day to day ETP
clearance certificate. environmental clearance monitoring and
certificate. compliance with
DoE.

4. PPE and Others:

SL Non Compliance Action Plan Comment

1. No Maintenance of chronological NA
accident/incident accident/incident register
report is
maintained, very
Few found(only)
2. Deviation report Should maintain as daily routine NA
found but none basis.
consistently.
3. Insufficient of Implementation of regulation on Employees should be
PPE(Personal all times usage of Rubber Gloves made aware of the

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 protective while handling chemicals and necessity of the personal
equipment) not wearing Rubber boots while protective equipment
maintain up to handling large quantities of it. through regular training
the Mark i.Even though the sound level is and implemented standard
not above tolerance, usage of operating procedure
noise reducing ear plug is (SOP).
preferable.
ii. Similarly, usage of metal gloves
in cutting machine is advisable.
4. No sufficient Installment of More Backup light. Several charge lights are
backup light used as instant back up
light, back up generator
line comes from outside
supplier which supplies
power for several lights
only(No Generator for
machines).
5. No Safety Formation of safety committee Regular training and drills
cell/Committee and conducting regular safety will work greatly in this
or awareness awareness campaign. aspect.
activity

5. Electrical Wiring:

Electrical connection, quality & placement of switch boards are barely

satisfactory. Each machine has separate line & switch. Most lines are
jacketed with plastic pipes and placed above head on the wall. There
are some new electrical lines added outside of the jacketed lines
which increases the fire risk even though they are bound the jacketed
lines with twines or tape. There are no crises-crossing below the roof
& no lines on the ground. Only placement of several pedestal
revolving fan encroach on unsafe placement.

6. Machine Safety:
Machines are mostly safe with regular maintenance. The Heat
producing machines has separate exhaust pipe to outside. Additionally

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 some wall mounted revolving fans circulate the excess heat produced
while in production. The possibility of work hazard includes cutting
machine and various motors running in the press.

Safety Provision:

1. Identifying the
“Areas of
Improvement”
on Safety
through

Audit/Observation:

2. Risk/Hazard Assessment & Analysis on

i. Equipment based analysis.

ii. Job based analysis.
iii. Location based analysis.
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 3. Identifying the presence of the resources including “PPE” (Personal
Protective Equipment) etc. & developing a useable PPE Matrix and
recommending for immediate arrangement of the equipment to
implement the Safety Management Program.

4. Factory Premises including Factory Access, Weigh bridge area, roads,

lanes & cleanliness related health hazard.

5. Preparing Accident Record Register in MS Excel :

Must Provide an Excel Sheet….

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 6. Factory Building Design Review & recommendation(subject to
availability of the original building architectural layout plan in soft
copy in AutoCAD only)
7. Electrical “Safety Assessment & Correction” where possible as per
recommendation of our Electrical Engineer.
8. Machine Safety Assessment & recommendation
9. Identification & recommendation for “Occupational Health”
10.Working “Uniform/Dress”, Safe for work_ awareness campaign
among the first line workers.
11. Recommendations for “Awareness Campaign Materials”.
12.Formation of “Safety Cell” (Safety Committee) for self Inspection &
carrying out safety events at a regular/scheduled interval.
13. Giving Complete Guideline to establish an “Emergency Safety
Clinic”.
14. Formation of “First Aid Team”
15. One day “First Aid Training” by Qualified Medical Professional (On
Additional Payment).

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 16. Fire protection Equipment & PPE :

17.Fire Fighting Training & Drill

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 18. Formation of “Fire Safety Cell (Team)” & Preparing Yearly Fire
Safety Drill Schedule(FSDS) :

Summary of Fire Safety Report

The Alif Garments Ltd was assessed by Mallik Shaheed Hussain identify
significant fire safety issues and to provide recommendations for
remediation based on BNBC-2006, Alliance/Accord, NFPA, Boiler Act, etc.
The scope of this initial fire safety inspection was limited to review and
identification of Highly Hazardous, Medium Hazardous and Hazardous for
Fire safety issues.

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 SL Weight age Importance

1. 3 Highly Hazardous

2. 2 Medium Hazardous

3. 1 Hazardous

Detail findings/observations and recommendations of fire safety issues have

been mentioned already. CAP time line will start from the report submit day.

Observations & Recommendations:

SL Category Observation Weight

1. Documentation Boiler license 2

2. Documentation Boiler Operator license 2

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 3. Documentation Fire License 2
4. Documentation HVAC System permission 1

5. Documentation Previous Assessment Report 2

6. Fire Protection Generator Room & Generator

3
Construction control room is not fire rated
7. Fire Protection Uncovered light in the stored
1
Construction area
8. Fire Protection Fire barriers are provided to
2
Construction separate boiler rooms.
9 Fire Protection Fire rated separations between
Construction Diesel tank and Generator are 2
not found
10. Electrical Permission from REB(Rural
Substation Electrification Board) 3
establishment
11. Means of Egress Some of the Exit signs have no
3
illumination system
12 Means of Egress Insufficient emergency light 2
13. Means of Egress Day Care location 3
14. Fire protection Fire pumps accessibility
2
systems
15. Fire protection Fire department connections are
2
systems not provided
16. Fire protection Inspection, maintenance and
systems testing records for hose pipe
system not found.

Executive Summary
Alif Garments Ltd is a Garments factory among many in Mohammodpur and
Shaymoly area. In terms of machineries, it is a medium to small garment
and other related factory dealing with ready made production. As a safety
precaution equipment it has fire extinguishers, which act as the preliminary
fire fighting unit. The Chemical handling & storage situation is dismal & the
ventilation scenario is barely acceptable. Usage of space is far above optimal
level resulting congested space with very limited space for storage and
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almost non-existent evacuation corridor in the workplace. Electrical wiring
nearly sufficient in terms of safety protocol with jacketed wiring and
separate switch boards for the machines.

Appendix:

1. Class note of Dr.Md.Mamunur Rashid

2. Documentation slide collected from Dr.Md.Mamunur Rashid
3. Book: Industrial Safety & Health by Dr.Md.Mamunur Rashid
4. Book: Industrial Safety & Health by William Hardley(Online
Version)
5. Alif Garments Ltd Safety Manual & Library
6. Different web sources for Safety Audit related report

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