Machine guarding contributes to increased productivity

There are many costs associated with workplace accidents. Machine downtime, lost production, worker health-care costs, employee training and increased workers’ compensation costs are just some examples. Clearly, the cost of safety devices and procedures are easily justified when the alternative is considered.  

Lockout/tagout is a common and critical practice designed to improve safety; however, machines aren’t running while lockout is occurring, and this impacts production. There are certain “minor servicing activities” that may not require a full lockout, reducing the impact on production. This topic was addressed in a white paper from Ross Controls entitled How Proper Risk Assessment, LOTO/Alternative LOTO and Machine Guarding Contribute to Increased Production.

Safety options

In the white paper, the author explains that a task-based risk assessment will help determine whether lockout/tagout is a necessary step, or whether alternative measures, like machine safeguarding, can be used instead to help control energy.

When alternative measures are safe and appropriate, reliable safety systems that provide effective protection can be used to isolate hazardous energy.

Ross Controls offers a variety of energy isolation – lockout valves designed to increase safety with little impact on production, including its line of manual lockout L-O-X valves.

Improve uptime

The white paper also suggests that one way to improve uptime for production-related activities is to position the lockout devices in locations that prevent unnecessary commuting time between the lockout location and the work that is to be done. This “locational lockout” presents a great advantage. By positioning these devices at multiple locations (i.e., the access points determined in the risk assessment), there will be less disruption.

Additional details

Today, new safety devices are being integrated into systems to improve both processes and safety. Productivity should never be put ahead of safety, but great strides are being made that take the bottom line into consideration.

To learn more, contact Ross Controls. 

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