Better Environment for Employees and Customers at Inspection Lane Areas By Mazuin Dahlan

P USPAKOM Sdn. Bhd. (PUSPAKOM) established in 1994, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of DRB-HICOM Bhd. PUSPAKOM is the first comprehensive vehicle

inspection company in Malaysia and the only vehicle inspection organisation appointed by the Malaysian government to undertake all mandatory inspections for commercial and public vehicles. They also carry out inspections on private vehicles for hire-purchase financing, ownership transfer and registration of imported vehicles. PUSPAKOM has sustained a continuous growth in a diversified organisation. PUSPAKOM has developed an extensive nationwide network to ensure inspection centres are within the reach of customers. Today, PUSPAKOM has 56 inspection centres for servicing purposes and more than 20 inspection sites around the country, performing more than 3 million inspections annually. PUSPAKOM was awarded a second 15-year concession by the government in 2009, and is set on a path of continuous expansion and improvements. They are a proud entity of providing services in vehicle inspection that meets international standards and sets the transportation industry in Malaysia at par with other countries.

Vehicle emissions at working and inspection areas

Employees working in the vehicle inspection area are exposed to vehicle emissions as they come in contact with the smoke through inhalation or physical contact. These particles will lead to health issues especially related to respiratory. Not only that, the release of this emission also leads to a polluted environment. These issues could lead to poor health among employees and also reflect a tarnished reputation for PUSPAKOM itself. Environmental Quality Excellence has become a new challenge to PUSPAKOM in providing conducive, safe and healthy working environment at inspection areas. Referring to Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment, Risk Control (HIRARC) analysis by Safety, Health & Environment (SHE) Section, depicts the vehicle smoke and dust is categorised as high risk of being hazardous to workers. Usually there is more emission during acceleration process in vehicle test. In addition to that,

the emission also stains the walls and other parts of the building. PUSPAKOM understands the fact that the involvement of top management in tackling this issue is vital in terms of ensuring safety and health issues of the employees and customers. This issue needs an immediate solution because as much as PUSPAKOM believes in optimising cost and increasing profit, it prioritises the employees and customers and gives importance in providing a green environment. In addition to that, PUSPAKOM also believes in providing good facilities as it reflects the reputation of PUSPAKOM. Moreover, by prioritising employees and customers, PUSPAKOM motivates its employees in providing the best ambiance to work. PUSPAKOM strives

to give the best in terms of financial performance, customer service, corporate branding, service and delivery, and people’s development. Therefore, cross functional members have been selected to come out with several solutions with regards to vehicle emissions at working and inspection areas. This team consists of five executives from various working background namely HICOM Management System (HMS), Branch Planning and Strategy (BPS), Quality Engineering (QE) and Safety, Health & Environment(SHE). This team is called Q-Master. Q-Master is determined to reduce the effect of vehicle emission to the employees of PUSPAKOM and inspection areas. PUSPAKOM Wangsa Maju was selected to conduct the pilot project. The ‘heavy lane’ was selected for research purposes due to the high diesel vehicle at the lane. This also was supported by a study conducted by Council of Europe states that ‘the worst sources of line particles in cities are from diesel burnt in buses and trucks’.

ICC tools towards betterment at PUSPAKOM

Total Suspended Particulate (TSP) is a solid matter or liquid droplets from smoke, dust, fuel ash or condensing vapors that can be suspended in the air. They either come from natural resources such as sea (windblown sea-salt) and soil (windblown soil particle) or man-made resources such as diesel exhausts, construction activities and factories.

TSP includes a range of different sized particle. The coarser particles are 50–100 micrometers and finer particles are smaller than 10 micrometers in diameter. TSP is exposed to human via three ways namely through skin penetration, consumption of contaminated food with TSP, and inhaling contaminated air with TSP. Fine particles are able to affect lungs functions as they are able to reach parts within the body during inhalation. Therefore, Q-Master used 5W2H concept to understand the problem better. Following that, few reasons of the exposure of TSP were identified. Firstly was the smoke released from the tail pipe commonly caused by incomplete fuel combustion, next was the position of office area between inspection lanes and lastly was the poor ventilation system at inspection areas. In addition to that, it was also identified that the

The effects of high TSP exposed to PUSPAKOM.

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Laboratory analysis was conducted to gauge the air

pollution at PUSPAKOM.

Air sampling activities was conducted by using high

volume (hi-vol) sampler.

Vehicle Examiner (VE) has the highest exposure to TSP and that was followed by the cleaners who do cleaning at inspection lanes.

Subsequently, Gemba verification and evaluation study that was conducted at a few branches stated that there were few root causes of high TSP exposure in the workplace. The Ishikawa Diagram and Matrix Diagram were used to identify and narrow down the causes contributing to negative impacts of TSP to the employees. The table shows the root causes, proposed solution and actions taken.

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Root Cause

Proposed Solution

Action Taken

Lack of awareness and knowledge on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) - mask compli-ance

Establish and issue SHE alert related to PPE compliance.

Awareness training on smoke hazard at workplace.

SHE Alert was established and issued to all branches by SHE Section. The instruction on wearing PPE pertaining to legal requirement was highlighted in the SHE Alert.

Awareness training is conducted among staff on PPE. This training includes briefing on the comparison of PPE types, the effectiveness to filter pollutant and the correct steps in wearing mask.

Observation of the PPE application also is conducted, which resulted in VEs are more aware (zero non-compliance) of the mask usage.

Office building position between inspection lanes

Installation of ZEPHYR.

Installation of smoke absorption unit named as ZEPHYR was tested at inspection lane to gauge its capability. TSP concentration in air is also measured using High Volume Sampler to gain the trend result in every hour. It shows about 7.5 percent reduction of TSP average as compared to previous monitoring.

Lack of specific study towards green environ-ment workplace

New type of paint to enhance existing standard.

Establish cleaning schedule at inspection lane including wall.

Discussion with Paint Specialist was conducted to study the paint which is suitable to PUSPAKOM’s business operation. Some criteria were highlighted for the new paint which includes the base type, color, price, durability (years) and in being washable. Oil based paint was proposed as it meets all the criteria of hard glossy finish, more durable and washable. The new proposed paint is applied at all branches.

In addition, cleaning schedule for inspection lane which includes wall cleaning was established and the cleaning is conducted once a week. The template has been placed at inspection lane and is being monitored by the cleaning supervisor.

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New SHE Alert was introduced to all employees.

ZEPHYR is installed at inspection lane for smoke absorption.

A series of awareness training were conducted which included the importance of wearing the right mask suit to the workplace environment and the effectiveness to filter pollutant.

Description Before After

Total Suspended Particulate (TSP) reading (mg/m3 )

4.389 4.059

Dust Mask Purchase (RM) 21,014 10,507

Compound and penalty of non-compliance (RM)

12,000 0

Cost of Paint (RM) 7,875 6,375

Mechanical Ventilation Setup (RM)

75,100 30,000

Matrix before and after ICC project:

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cost about RM30,000 per branch which includes cost of body, ventilation fan, cone, water container, paint and others. Thus, installation of ZEPHYR is rather economical compared to MVAC in which has reduced the cost of mechanical ventilation setup by RM45,100 per branch. Overall, the implementation of Zephyr at all branches prevents the accumulation of heat in the workplace thus preventing heat stroke and heat exhaustion. Moreover, it reduces exposure to airborne hazardous substances. This ensures a safe and healthy environment for all employees thus increasing turnover at workplace. All this also increases productivity in a safe and comfortable working environment. Zephyr is also designed for a fast and easy in-line maintenance that comes with high reliability and safe handling. This design reduces time and money spent on cleaning inspection equipment while dust, oil and other airborne substances are kept to a minimum. Lastly, PUSPAKOM is delighted with this betterment that leads to a more conducive working place.

Analysis of ICC project in PUSPAKOM

The project successfully achieved its target by eliminating non-compliances of PPE requirement, reducing the impact of vehicle emissions on wall at heavy vehicle (HV) lanes by setting up new paint standard and also reducing TSP reading from 4.389 mg/m3 to 4.059 mg/m3. The 7.5 percent reduction of TSP concentration in air show the control measure taken was successful to achieve the 5 percent reduction target. All processes and achievement have been documented as internal standards as follows;

1. SHE alert to cultivate PUSPAKOM employees at branches;

2. Work Instruction for ZEPHYR setup and operation; 3. New paint type standard for all walls in every

branch; and 4. Cleaning schedule for lane inspection for

monitoring purposes. Reduction of TSP concentration has helped in the

reduction of mask usage on daily basis. Now one mask can be utilised for two days. This has brought to a cost savings of RM10,507. With the mention of TSP in the regulations, all compound and non-compliance penalty charges were avoided resulting in the savings of RM12,000 annually. Not only that, an oil based paint with a durability of six years is used now compared to the previous paint which only lasted for two years. This has brought to another cost savings of RM1,500.

Mechanical ventilation is the common engineering

control done nationwide. Installation of Mechanical Ventilation and Air Conditioning Control (MVAC) includes setup of permanent ducting set, ventilation fan, piping and trap tank with total installation cost about RM75,100 per branch while fabrication of ZEPHYR