LEEA CEO Dr Ross Moloney, who recently visited Australia to meet with members and industry representatives, told Inside Waste he is in the country to promote LEEA initiatives and guidance, as well as convey to end users of lifting equipment in all industrial sectors why it is important to be working with LEEA members.
According Moloney, LEEA is an industry organisation that works with its members to ensure that we know what best practice and standards are, and their main goal is to raise standards worldwide, which they do that in three ways.
“Firstly, we help our members identify and manage risks. Secondly, we protect and promote their interests and talk to governments, officials and departments to make sure that when procurement happens that quality is considered, as well as the costs. And thirdly, we give our members a competitive advantage,” Moloney said.
“LEEA is all about quality and anyone in the world can become a member, but you’ve got to keep to our rules. If you can’t keep to our rules then you can’t become a member, and our rules are all about keeping to the highest possible quality of standards and compliance, and abiding by all regulations with no shortcuts.
“We do it in a number of supply chains around a different number of industries, because wherever you fight gravity, that’s where LEEA works. We basically touch every industry you can think of. Head office is in the UK, but we’ve got an office in Dubai, and we’re looking at how we can better support members of Australia and New Zealand.
“So it’s a period of growth and change for us and we are keen to let our members know that we are working hard to support them better. LEEA also needs to communicate with end users better, so that they understand the value of working with a LEEA member.
“So it’s not my goal to broadcast the benefits of LEEA, it’s my goal to broadcast the benefits of LEEA members. So for me, success is when an end user is going through the procurement process and they are faced with choosing between a LEEA member and a non-LEEA member, they just go with the LEEA member.”
An Australian members group and local committee was formed in 2009 to provide local focus, ensure compliance with Australian regulations and standards, and provide networking opportunities across the industry.
Ashley Thacker, general manager of industrial lifting, rigging and safety specialists Ranger, and the Australian director and representative for LEEA, says that LEEA provides guidance to almost every piece of lifting equipment available.
“They cover safe use, safe handling, maintenance, storage, as well as inspection criteria. It’s not a tick and flick checklist, but it gives the user a bit of a better understanding of the equipment they are working with,” Thacker continues.
“LEEA also has seats on pretty much every major standard around the world – the ISA standard, the British standard, the Australian standard – so that allows us to bring in that eclectic guidance to our members and try to harmonise some of the newer standards in as they are being written.
“There originally were some concerns about making the content relevant to our local standards – the way that we inspect equipment is all the same, but the legal ramification laws are a bit different. So it’s just about understanding and relating it back into Australian standards rather than the international standards.”
The benefits of membership for Australian companies include:
- Independently delivered and assessed training and qualifications for inspectors and technicians involved in lifting equipment maintenance;
- Internationally recognised TEAM card identity and qualification scheme;
- Technical audits and support in achieving and maintaining LEEA standards;
- Representation to authorities at local, national and international level;
- Formal and informal networking with fellow members;
- Twice yearly members meetings held across Australia;
- A promotional listing on the main LEEA website visited by over 60,000 users per year; and
- Expert and up to date information and advice.
“When we started eight years ago we didn’t really have a quality program in place, and it was good to get that initial audit from LEEA to find out exactly where we were deficient,” Thacker said.
“That was the best thing for us. It brought us up to another level and it allowed us to identify the key things that we had to work on, as well as being able to properly train our guys to the right standards.”
According to Moloney, while he is on Australian shores he will continue to meet with LEEA members to better understand what their concerns are in order to better support them in these issues.
“I am here to meet members in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, all of whom work in different supply chains and from different sectors, to hear their concerns and take that all back to our head office to figure out how we can better support our Australian members,” Moloney said.
“We have 80 members in Australia, 450 in the UK, we have 400 in the Middle East, so also want to work on how we can we improve the information sharing that we have across the globe.
“I am here with an absolute open mind and the only imperative I have from the board is to make LEEA as great as it possibly can be. We obviously have got really strong foundations, so it is really just about taking it to the next levels.”
.JPG)
.png){kind=small}
