A third party safety audit can help ensure your business remains safe and compliant, help you develop an elite safety program, or help you obtain VPP Star/Merit status. Whatever you are looking to do in the world of safety and compliance, a third party safety audit will probably be a requirement.

Qualified third party safety auditors will begin any safety audit with a full review of your current hazard assessments. The auditor will ensure the procedures in place for these hazards are OSHA compliant. Next, the auditor will review all accident investigation to identify any potential areas of concern. These areas will then be assessed and corrective action will be recommended. Finally, the auditor should perform a comprehensive “wall to wall” safety inspection of the facility. This should allow the auditor to uncover any unknown compliance issues. Once all of this data is collected, the auditor should present an action plan to correct these issues.

Whether attempting to develop a new safety program or ensure compliance, this data is extremely useful. And, generally, a safety audit should be the first step either way, as it gives you a firm starting point to build from. A third party safety audit benefits those attempting to obtain VPP Star/Merit status, as it is a recommendation of the program, and it also allows a third party professional to take an objective view of your safety programs.

If you have any questions about a third party safety audit, please contact us. If you have anything to add about a third party safety audit, please leave a comment.

Whether you are new to your industry or have been in it for decades, if your industry involves lockout tagout procedures, you have pulled your hair out at least a few times from it. But don’t feel bad, everyone has – lockout tagout procedures are hard to implement and harder to maintain. But once you’ve overcome that first hurdle of putting an effective lockout tagout procedure in place, it is important to have a system in place which allows you to monitor and update these procedures quickly. This system must also allow for immediate dissemination of information to any employees working in the area, and must take any updates to the relevant OSHA standards into account.

There are two ways to monitor lockout tagout procedures. It can be done by the safety team, who will periodically review the OSHA standards and periodically review the procedures to ensure everything is still in compliance. Should personnel or machinery change, they might update the relevant information in the procedures. But they will not be dedicated to monitoring the lockout tagout procedures; there simply is not enough man power on any safety team to do that (or at least, there shouldn’t be given the costs associated).

The second option is to use software designed to help monitor your lockout tagout procedures. A great example of this type of software is our Factory Solutions Software, which is a web-based program that allows you to update your procedures in real time at any time and from anywhere you have internet access. It is fully scalable, fully customizable, and is constantly updated as per OSHA’s requirements. With this software, changes can be easily and effectively disseminated to employees, and there is no fear of your facility being out of compliance.

If you have any questions about the benefits of Factory Solutions Software, please contact us. Should you have anything to add about the importance of effectively monitoring lockout tagout procedures, please leave a comment.

Potential arc flash hazards need to be visually marked on the machines and accounted for in your Safety and Health Management System. In order to do this, you need to identify all hazards and determine how best to prevent them from affecting your business and your employees.

Many employers choose to run their arc flash analysis in house, and have their staff determine their hazards. And while there are many highly qualified arc flash experts out there, if you do not have one on your team, then you are asking an inexperienced team to learn about an extremely complicated matter with no one to help them. This can be a daunting task for a member of your team and can ultimately leave you liable if a mistake is made by the unqualified individual.

Some common mistakes include companies only testing equipment over 240 V and not testing equipment supplied by a Hazard Risk Category 0 panel. The first mistake is based upon a common misconception in IEEE 1584 which governs Arc Flash Analysis. In IEEE they do set a base of 240 volts, however that is based upon incident energy calculations and does not exempt any companies from OSHA or NFPA requirements. As for the second point, it is important to remember that a Hazard Risk Category 0 feed does not guarantee the next machine will be a Hazard Risk Category 0.

If you have any questions about Arc Flash or how a third party can help you, please contact us so that we can help you through this difficult process. And if you have anything you would like to add about arc flash hazard prevention, please leave a comment.

We just wanted to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season. Too often do we hear about holiday related incidents, both at work and home, so we decided to share some tips to stay safe this year.

Holiday Lights – Holiday lights are one of the worst culprits of holiday accidents. Please check any lights you buy for a label ensuring they have been tested by a third party for safety. It is not worth potentially starting a fire in your home or office to save a few cents a strand. In addition, you should never use more than three sets of lights on an extension cord. Find different outlets in your home or office, or run additional cords, if needed. Finally, turn off all lights if you are going out or going to sleep. The lights can short out and start a fire.

Fire Places – There might be no better feeling than sitting in front of a warm fire on a cold night with family around the holidays, but please do it safely. Before lighting the fire, please remove any decorations, papers, etc from the fireplace (this includes any stockings hanging above it). Also be cautious if you plan to use any fire salts; their colors can be very festive, but they can also be very harmful if eaten. Finally, do not burn wrapping paper, it can cause flash fires and is extremely dangerous.

Trees – If you have an artificial tree, make sure it is fire resistant, as with lights it is worth the extra few dollars to protect yourself from unneeded risks. If you have a real tree, make certain it is fresh and well watered. A dry tree is a serious fire hazard, and needs to be carefully monitored. No matter what kind of tree you have, you should never put it near a fireplace, radiator, vent, or other heat source.

Candles – Candles are great decorations, and add a lot to the season, but proper safety must be followed now, just the same as the rest of the year. Keep candles in a safe place, away from any combustible materials, and where they will not be knocked over. Place candles in non-flammable holders, never put them on trees. Finally, ensure there is nothing above the candle which can burn, many fires are started in bookshelves or other shelving units.

If you follow these tips, you will greatly reduce your chances of an accident during the holiday season. Again, have a safe and happy holiday season, and please feel free to leave comments with any of your holiday safety tips.

We are Premier Factory Safety, and this blog has been created as a place to share our experience and expertise in our industry, as well as a place to discuss how we can help you to stay compliant and keep your workplace substantially safer. There is a lot of misinformation about what is, and is not, required by OSHA. There is also a real need for information relating to a safe workplace. We are specialists in this regard, and have decided that we will answer some of the most common questions we get here, and also use this as a place to keep you up to date on any regulatory changes.

We eat, breath, and live safety, with a constant eye on OSHA and its requirements. Please take a look at our site to familiarize yourself with who we are and our products and services. If anything on there is interesting to you, or raises any questions you would like answered, please contact us and we will certainly help you out in every way we can. And who knows, you just may see your question here.

Keep your eyes peeled for our upcoming posts, which will show you how PF Safety can save you from some major OSHA headaches (as well as some non-OSHA headaches from an unsafe workplace).