Despite all the Change in Manufacturing Operations Today, Safety Must Still be a Constant in Process Improvement

Blog: Apriso Blog

despite all the manufacturing transformation, safety on shop floor still a constant There are many responsibilities business owners and plant managers must juggle. While you have duties to your customers, business partners, and the government, your responsibilities to your employees are perhaps the most important of all. All businesses have to ensure its workforce remains safe while on the job and you can’t do that without the proper equipment.

Despite the digital transformation now underway in manufacturing operations, there are still other parts of operations that will not change – as hard as that may be to imagine, given the sweeping changes now underway! One of those activities is safety. So, I thought it might be a good idea to review a list of safety best-practices that might easily be forgotten at a time when such high levels of scrutiny are applied to Lean, Six Sigma and other continuous process improvement initiatives.

1. Alarm Systems

Alarm systems are a must have for any factory, office, or other indoors workspace. Fire alarms are likely required in any building, based on, at minimum, code requirements. A fire could break out due to the failure of the building’s electrical system, for example, at which point employees would then need to be alerted of the fire to escape to safety. However, other companies may need other kinds of alarm systems installed. Gas leaks and chemical spills in special factories and other industrial settings can certainly kill or badly injure employees.

Beyond the act of installing such alarm systems, training should be regularly conducted to ensure everyone knows the propper, safe route to evacuate as well as where to meet after, to ensure all workers can be accounted for, should an actual fire break out.

2. Safety Goggles

One of the most common workplace injuries involves the eyes. Injuries here are especially serious since they can lead to blindness and badly hamper a person’s quality of life. If there is even a slight chance of particles, however small, becoming airborne in your employees’ workspace, safety goggles are required. If employees could be exposed to harmful chemicals that could affect the eyes, safety goggles should be worn. If employees require prescription goggles, see if you can get customized options at places like All About Eyes. Or, simply use safety goggles that are big enough to fit over prescription lens. Make sure you have eye wash basins in place as well.

Interestingly, those workers operating in clean rooms typical with high tech manufacturing should also wear goggles, but perhaps, for an additional reason – to avoid contaminants enter the clean room environment, such as eye lashes. Increasingly with sophisticated manufacturing processes now required by today’s manufacturers, the precision of what materials are part of the production process must be highly regulated and monitored. Any sort of contaminants could seriously impact the quality and end-user experience while consuming your product.

3. Airborne Debris or Equipment

In certain cases, employees simply breathing in the air at a worksite can be deadly. For example, employees that have to renovate old buildings may come into contact with asbestos. If breathed in, asbestos can lead to extremely serious and incurable chronic health problems. You should never take chances. If there is a chance that a worksite could be contaminated, employees should use respirators to filter the air supply so it’s safe.

Other safety issues can occur from things travelling through the air – such as a robotic arm. The use of robots is increasingly becoming part of many production processes. Traditional robotics usage might have been limited to just specific areas of the production line. Today, some manufacturers are now experimenting with the use of robots to work alongside workers on the shop floor. This practice has all sorts of implications on new safety measures to ensure injuries are avoided at all costs. The modernization or automation of production processes will not be a positive return on investment if workers are injured as a result!

4. Falling Objects

And, lets not neglect the continued risk of falling debris, a serious concern on many jobsites. If a heavy object can fall from up high, it can certainly kill or badly disable an employee. Hard hats should be required for all jobsites in which falling objects is a possibility. Make sure your employees know to keep these safety equipment and measures in place at all times. They are responsible to keep themselves safe as well.

5. Emergency Stops

Sometimes, equipment or machines malfunction. Other times, an employee might accidentally fall and slip into a working piece of equipment. If that is the case, there should be a button that can be pressed to stop the machinery immediately so it causes no more harm to such an employee. Most equipment come with this as a standard part of the machinery. If not, make sure you replace older equipment with newer models.

Those manufacturers considering adding new automation processes, Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) or robots to be installed on their production line need to also consider the safety ramifications of such an investment. How will an employee quickly stop one of these machines in time before someone gets hurt? It is easy to get caught up in the performance improvement or efficiency gains from such investments. Don’t neglect to also invest in the necessary safety standards to ensure the best possible protection for your factory workers.

Overall, workplace safety has always been a vitally important concept. This is why so many manufacturers have dashboards or Andon boards to track how long it has been since a safety incident. As new investments are made in new technologies or automated processes, don’t neglect to consider the safety ramifications too as part of your initial investment and project scope. Make sure your employees have all the tools available to them to protect them from harm while on the job.

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