Monthly Archives: May 2013

Fire Protection

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Twitt

Fires are one of the greatest threats a company can face. A fire puts ever member of the staff in danger, can severely damage or destroy equipment, and can bring a company to a screeching halt. It is for this reason that OSHA Standard 1910.155 is so important for any business to review and follow. This standard covers fire protection, with regulations to help prevent fires as well as help suppress or contain them, should the need arise.

Fire prevention is obviously key to any fire protection strategy. If you can stop a fire from ever happening, that is a true safety win. The best way to do this is to make sure all of your equipment and machinery are properly maintained and all safety devices are working properly.

And while prevention is the goal of every business, equally important is preparing for a fire emergency. Early detection and elimination can save lives, machinery, and keep a business running smoothly. Simple things like fire detectors and sprinklers can help suppress a fire, while properly working fire extinguishers can put a fire out before it has the chance to spread. It is also important to ensure your fire protection equipment is regularly checked to ensure it is functioning properly. This is best accomplished by an annual audit, which will test each piece of equipment, and ensure that your plan is still efficient, regardless of the changes you make to your business year over year.

If you have any questions about your fire protection plan and implementation, please contact us so that we can help ensure you are safe and up to code. And if you have anything to add about fire protection and prevention, please leave a comment.

Benefits of Third Party Lockout Tagout Procedure Management

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Twitt

When it comes to lockout tagout procedures and maintenance, many business owners wonder if it is worth outsourcing to a professional third party lockout tagout specialist, or if it would be better to manage this need internally. This is a fair questions and there is no easy answer to it. Instead, what you need to consider is the size of the project, the timeframe you are working with, and your team. With those factors in mind, you can then have a fair apples-to-apples comparison of costs and efficiency compared to a professional third party.

When considering the timeframe for implementation, it is important to consider the man power that will be required to meet your deadlines. If you need the project completed in a short period of time, is it going to be worth pulling a number of employees from other key functions to work on this project? Or, are you going to need to bring on new employees to keep your business operational?

Tied in with the timeframe is the size. If this is going to be a large scale project, it will obviously take more employee hours than will a small project. The larger the project, the more room there is for errors, as well. Again, you must consider if you have the personnel to pull to effectively manage the project, or if you will be hiring on additional staff to cover your lockout tagout project.

Finally, you need to truly and fairly evaluate your team. If you have a staff experienced in lockout tagout procedures then you are in a better place for internal management than a company with no experienced employees. Now, it is possible to learn lockout tagout, but depending on the time frame and size of your project, you will need to determine if it is feasible for members of your staff to learn a new component for a large project on a set schedule.

The best way to make the determination of outsourcing vs. in-house management is to contact a professional who can help you. If you are in need of establishing a new lockout tagout procedure, or are in need of lockout tagout maintenance, please contact us and we will help you decide what makes the most sense. And if you have anything to add about lockout tagout, please leave a comment.

The Importance of Preventative Maintenance

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Twitt

Thought often overlooked, preventative maintenance should be of serious concern to every business owner and safety team. Properly maintaining machinery can increase the life of machinery, decrease the repair costs, and ensure safety protocols remain effective. The best safety equipment in the world is made ineffective with time if not properly maintained.

For maximum efficiency, preventative maintenance should be included in any Safety and Health management System. These systems are designed to ensure safety at every level in a company, and it is rare that you can include in your Safety and Health Management System something that is also so important to your company’s bottom line. But following manufacturer defined routine maintenance really does cut costs while keeping the workplace safer.

If preventative maintenance is not currently a part of your Safety and Health Management System, it is quite easy to incorporate it. First, you need to go through all of your machinery, inventorying exactly what you have, Then, you have to find out what the required maintenance is for each item. Finally, you just add preventative maintenance placards to each device, and create a section in the Safety and Health Management System dedicated to the procedures around following these placards.

If you are ready to establish a preventative maintenance plan for your company, or want more information on how it will benefit you, specifically, feel free to contact us and we can walk you through the entire process. If you have established a preventative maintenance plan for your business and would like to share your thoughts on the topic, please leave a comment.

Safety Signs and Visuals

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Twitt

All across your workplace you have signs, visuals, and placards, which are printed in a number of colors and utilize a series of symbols and letters to denote specific hazards, safety devices, or evacuation routes. These symbols are largely universal, known by everyone who works in your facility and are a great way to notify your employees of a number of important things in the workplace.

But, what happens if an emergency situation arises and non-employees are in your facility? Or, staff members from one department happen to be trapped in another? Or emergency personnel are entering your facility to combat a serious hazard? There needs to be a well defined and universal system in place in your facility which can be understood by outsiders to your business quickly and efficiently. This is where OSHA Standard 1910.145 comes in. OSHA created a universal standard against which you need to create your company safety signs.

If you have old signs in your facility, or if you created the signs without ensuring they are compliant, it is important to have a full inspection of your facility to ensure all hazards are properly noted and that all signs are up to code. If any signs are determined to be out of date or unacceptable, you need to immediately replace those signs.

If you have any specific signs that need to be replaced, they can be ordered through our store, and you can rest easy knowing they are OSHA compliant. If, on the other hand, you are not sure if your signage is up to code, please contact us so that we can help you get on track. If you have anything else to say about safety signage, please leave a comment.