BACKGROUND

QHSA Ltd was set up in June 2008 by Roger Bishop with the aim of providing Quality and Health & Safety management and support services to emerging and established businesses.

He has worked as a QHSE Manager at a number of manufacturing companies over the past 18 years, the last 10 of which were spent within the Renewable Energy Industry.

Roger started work as a Fabricator / Welder in the Midlands. By the age of 21 he had become Quality Manager at a medium size engineering company manufacturing a range of components for the Railway Rolling-stock Industry, a post which he held for 6 years. 

After relocating to Scotland, he joined Aerpac UK Ltd who, at that time, were the second largest “independent” wind turbine blade manufacturer in the world. During the next 4 years he helped the company through rapid growth, development and site relocation to larger facilities. In addition to his QHSE role, Roger was also responsible for the management and control of all technical aspects of blade manufacture, providing technical advice for production line set up, translating blade designs into manufacturing work instructions and providing technical advice for blade repair and rework. 

He then moved into consultancy, providing a range of Quality and Health & Safety services. His main area of focus was supporting wind turbine blade manufacturers and component suppliers develop their production processes and technology, and assisting turbine manufacturers with the set up of their blade manufacturing facilities, production lines, training of personnel, pre-delivery inspection and product verification. Clients included: Enron Wind, Alabe, DEwind, NKK Corporation, JFE Japan, GE Wind Energy, and NOI Scotland.    

During this consultancy period, Roger joined Ocean Power Delivery Ltd (now Pelamis Wave Power Ltd) as QHSE Manager. Over the next 5 years he helped the company develop the Pelamis wave energy machine from concept design, to prototype, and then into serial production of 3 machines for Enersis a Portuguese utility.  

His work included:

  • development of a Quality Management System based on BS EN ISO 9001 2000 and Health & Safety Management System based on OHSAS 18001;
  • auditing of all major component suppliers, monitoring the conformity of all components and machine build quality throughout the construction phases of both the prototype and serial production machines.
  • creation and updating of all risk assessments and additional safety management procedures for all phases of construction - sea-trials, offshore installation and commissioning, monitoring and decommissioning - for both the prototype and serial production machines. 
  • assessment and selection of all construction assembly sites and the setting up of all quality and health & safety procedures, activities and initiatives on these sites (Edinburgh, Methil, Orkney, Stornoway and Portugal), training of all employees and monitoring of performance. 

Whilst at Ocean Power Delivery Ltd, Roger carried out an extensive review of all existing UK health & safety legislation, as there was nothing specific to the Wave Energy Industry. In March 2007, at the Wave and Tidal Health & Safety Seminar sponsored by E-on, Roger published a report to assist the industry identify best practice health & safety methods and standards. In early 2008, he used this knowledge to make a significant contribution to the creation of the British Wind Energy Association’s (BWEA) Health & Safety Guidelines for Marine Renewable Energy Projects.    

He subsequently joined one of the UK’s leading Renewable Energy Marine & Engineering Consultancies, where he provided health & safety support to the project team responsible for the installation of a commercial demonstration tidal device, and to various project management teams responsible for the construction, operation and maintenance of a number of Round 1 and 2 Offshore Wind Farms.