2012 - PageSuite

INFOCUS
Hope is not an effective safety strategy
By J.B. Titus
It basic nature that businesses
don’t want incidents to occur.
And, at the same time employees
don’t want to be hurt. Businesses
generally, some only
when confronted, don’t wish
for exposure to unneeded regulation, unscheduled
machine downtime, employee
injuries, costly liabilities or the cost burdens
associated with these issues. Yet,
these are some of the negative results a
business can expect as consequences of
avoiding the required risk assessments
for their machinery operations.
Some of the potential liabilities of
exposure (avoidable consequences)
might be:
Timing: Too many businesses still
avoid the issue of compliance to the risk
assessment requirement which extends
to existing, new or modified equipment.
The sooner the better to meet compliance
requirements and avoid
citations.
Misapplied devices: Quite
often safety devices are provided
but are miss-applied because
a hazard level was not properly
assessed. For example, a Cat 4
hazard could require a control
reliable solution involving a Cat 4 safety
rated switch with redundant contacts.
A miss-applied device in this example
could include; a single standard interlock
switch, safety rated devices below Cat
4, or an application which is not control
reliable.
Foreseeable misuse: A properly conducted
machine guarding risk assessment
will typically uncover misuse situations
like; equipment malfunction, unauthorized
process material, operating tooling
beyond its useful life, unexpected loss of
power, and reach over, under, around, or
through guarding.
Misapplied procedure: Lockout/
Tagout (LOTO) is frequently misunderstood
and/or not always followed as
prescribed by OSHA. LOTO incidents
are preventable via frequent training,
documenting procedures, not permitting
shortcuts, and by establishing employee
penalties for non compliance.
Unidentified modes: All modes of
operation and their related tasks need
to be identified in order to reveal their
related hazards. Unidentified modes
include; setup, cleanup and preventive
maintenance.
The advice of industry experts is to not
become aware of the importance of risk
assessments only after a serious incident
and the resulting OSHA citation, or the
legal engagement, or the sever financial
expenses which fall directly to your bottom
line. “Hope” is not an effective strategy
– proactive engaged machine safety
leadership is! P E
Read J.B. Titus’ blog, Machine Safety,
at www.plantengineering.com/blogs.
Powering Production with
Confidence.
When you need to keep plant operations up
and running, Aggreko has the equipment and
expertise to help make it happen.
Maintaining production is a big responsibility. So partner up
with Aggreko and get the rental generators, temporary HVAC
and more to help you through seasonal demands, turnarounds
and emergency outages. With 24/7/365 service and over 50
locations across North America, we’re standing by with the
equipment and expertise to keep it all moving, no matter what.
Rental Solutions
ü
ü
ü
ü
ü
Rental Generators
Temporary HVAC
100% Oil-free Compressed Air
Cooling Solutions
24/7/365 Service
input #11 at www.plantengineering.com/information
800.AGGREKO | aggreko.com/northamerica
For more information, call 866.215.7966 or visit us
online at aggreko.com/northamerica