Reliable Securing

Format: Interactive Focal Point workshop
Duration: 90 minutes

Reliable Securing

Reliable Securing is a practical workshop for DROPS Focal Points and others responsible for dropped object prevention assurance. The session focuses on how weak or degraded securing arrangements are recognized in the field, how findings are assessed, and how temporary fixes are converted into durable controls.

Participants will work with the core DROPS Reliable Securing concepts, including primary fixing, secondary retention, and safety securing. The workshop also reinforces the difference between prevention controls that stop an item falling and mitigative controls that reduce exposure if prevention fails.

Why this workshop matters

Reliable securing failures often appear as small details: missing split pins, loose fasteners, poor wire locking, unsecured portable equipment, corroded brackets, improvised ties, or equipment that has changed since the original design. Left unmanaged, these details can become serious dropped object hazards.

This workshop helps Focal Points move beyond spotting individual defects. It shows how to recognize recurring failure mechanisms, challenge unsuitable securing methods, improve inspection quality, and use findings to strengthen maintenance, procurement, transport, and management-of-change controls.

What the workshop covers

• The difference between primary fixing, secondary retention, and safety securing.
• Static and dynamic dropped object scenarios, and how securing expectations differ.
• Common failure mechanisms including vibration, corrosion, poor preload, shock loading, snagging, weather exposure, loose items, and unmanaged modifications.
• Practical securing methods including bolted connections, split pins, locking wire, clamps, nets, meshes, tool tethering, and portable equipment securing.
• How to use picture books, inspection routines, post-event checks, action tracking, and Focal Point sign-off to improve field assurance.
• A transport and backloading application showing how securing can degrade before equipment reaches the worksite.

Who should attend

This workshop is designed for DROPS Focal Point Program participants, HSE and operations personnel, supervisors, maintenance teams, and anyone involved in dropped object prevention inspections or corrective action management.

Members attend free of charge. Non-member registration is US$50.