When thinking about creating lockout tagout procedures, efficiency is often not a consideration. Instead, most safety personnel and business owners focus on getting done as quickly as possible while staying within the complicated requirements of OSHA Standard 1910.147. But inefficient procedures can lead to long term complications which can create headaches for years down the line. So when creating your system, keep efficiency in mind.

By efficiency, we mean several things – how easy are the procedures to read, how easy are the procedures to update and amend, have redundancies been eliminated, and have unnecessary tasks or steps been removed. These four areas of your lockout tagout procedures, if not efficient, can create health and safety risks to employees should a lockout tagout event occur, can create a need to rewrite your entire procedures in the event of a change in the future, and can cost tens of thousands of dollars in wasted employee hours.

To reduce these inefficiencies, it is advisable to have a qualified third party lockout tagout specialist review your lockout tagout procedures. Someone with years of experience in the industry will easily spot inefficiencies and errors, streamlining your procedure and setting you up for success today and into the future. And with online tools like our Factory Solutions Software, you can sleep easy knowing that your procedures will remain up to date and efficient going forward.

If you have any questions about creating lockout tagout procedures or about lockout tagout procedure audits, please contact us. And if you have anything to add about creating efficient lockout tagout procedures, please leave a comment.