One of the most common reasons clients reach out to us is a need to update their existing lockout tagout procedures. These clients had set up their lockout tagout procedures some time in the past, monitored minor changes, and felt generally comfortable with what they were doing, but now needs to make some kind of major overhaul to their procedures. And they now reach out to us because this kind of update can actually be more difficult than establishing new lockout tagout procedures.

The reason it can be so difficult is that, when establishing new lockout tagout procedures, you have a clean slate to work with, but when you are updating existing lockout tagout procedures, you need to fit something new into an existing space. Sometimes this transition is very smooth and easy. But even in the case of a near seamless transition, we still recommend having the new plan professionally reviewed by a qualified third party safety auditing firm.

But in the event that the transition is not so smooth, a full audit of the lockout tagout procedures may be required. The last thing you want to do is to try to make your procedures work; i.e. you do not want to leave them with a sense of “good enough.” This is what leads to safety issues in the workplace.

If you have any questions about updating or changing your lockout tagout  procedures, please contact us. And if you have anything to add about transitioning your procedures, please leave a comment.