About Factory Safety

It is largely obvious that manufacturers are advised to keep their plants safe. Among several other safety statistics, Eurostat shows that 31.4% of all non-fatal accidents at work in the EU occur at industrial sites.

In addition, several regulatory bodies such as EU-OSHA and HSE regularly issue guidelines to help keep industrial workers safe. Despite all the measures taken, accidents such as falls from height, being struck by falling objects, crashes and collisions still occur frequently.

In the following article, we will look at five essential requirements for a safe workplace. The goal of the following five points is to be proactive – to address safety issues before they happen.

This information gives manufacturers the ability to create a system that severely limits the chances of an accident occurring.

Safety Supervision

One of the major steps in ensuring employee safety is to provide adequate safety supervision. Without a competent supervisory function, it is difficult for manufacturing plants to achieve a sustainable or consistent level of safety standards. As such, supervision has always played a key role in manufacturing safety.

However, it is one thing to have safety oversight and quite another to have that oversight be effective. Manufacturers need to regularly assess just how effective and appropriate their safety supervisors are for the task at hand. Effective supervision involves having the foresight to identify hazards and risks in the work area and to take appropriate precautions. This is necessary to ensure that work tasks are performed safely.

Here are some highly desirable qualities to look for when you are looking for a competent safety supervisor

Here are some highly desirable qualities you need to look for when looking for a skilled safety supervisor.

● Strong leadership skills and other soft skills

● Technical knowledge relevant to your niche – while there are exceptions to every rule, if you operate a chemical plant, a supervisor with years of construction experience may be better able to identify hazards in construction than your chemical plant

● Relevant qualifications and certifications.

That is, among other things, safety oversight will include.

● Monitoring, enforcing and improving safety matters at the plant

● Tracking and enforcing compliance with the plant’s safety policies and regulatory safety standards and regulations

● Recommending and monitoring the use of PPE

● Updating safety policies – reviewing and updating current safety management protocols

That said, even the best supervisors cannot be everywhere at once or handle everything safety-related on their own.

Internal Risk Management

A common challenge in manufacturing is that too many other priorities are gradually overshadowing security. Manufacturers need to control costs, increase productivity, adopt new technologies, find skilled employees and ensure everyone’s safety. In addition, they often face disruptive supply chain issues.

In these situations, it’s easy to fall into fire-fighting mode – they are reactive to one security-related issue after another. While you may not be able to completely avoid security risks, you can certainly anticipate and mitigate those risks and hazards. This can be achieved through an established and frequently updated risk management process.

This process is shown below.

● Regular safety audits to identify inherent hazards

● Unsafe behavior detection and deterrence policies

● Obtaining and integrating feedback from the shop floor and all other units

Immediate and appropriate solutions to identified hazards.

Ongoing Training

More safety incidents occur when workers lack adequate training to safely handle the tasks assigned to them. First and foremost, it is critical to incorporate safety training into the onboarding process at every facility.

Train new employees thoroughly, while providing ongoing training for more experienced workers, especially when they are assigned new duties.

Taking the time to ensure workers are properly trained can prevent permanent, life-changing injuries and musculoskeletal problems.

From the moment they are hired at the plant, all employees must be aware of all safety procedures, especially regarding their specific position. In addition, special training should be conducted on a regular basis to further reduce the risk of accidents.

Emergency response procedures

Employers must ensure that employees are trained in workplace emergency procedures. This information will usually cover what to do in the event of a fire or other emergency.

Emergency procedures must be updated frequently and provide employees with information on

● Recognize emergencies

● Sounding the alarm

● Emergency evacuation procedures

● Specific equipment that must be turned off

● Alerting first responders

●Basic first aid training

● Location of emergency exits

Typically, these procedures will vary depending on the type of product manufactured, but will include, at a minimum, arrangements for first aid, lockdown, evacuation plans, etc.

Infrastructure Maintenance

Employees have a better chance of having a safe day at work when physical structures, machinery and equipment are regularly maintained and kept in top condition.

Lack of maintenance, inadequate maintenance or improper maintenance can lead to accidents, hazardous situations and lingering health problems. For everything else manufacturers deal with on a daily basis, they can simplify infrastructure maintenance and reliability by automating and strategically planning maintenance. This can be easily accomplished with manufacturing maintenance software that conveniently handles.

● Work request and work order management

● Maintenance planning and scheduling

● Spare parts inventory management

In summary

Keeping your shop floor safe is in everyone’s best interest – and a better way to handle safety issues is to be as proactive as possible. We hope the above discussion will help you achieve this goal.