For today’s Thought Leadership Interview, we spoke with Lindsay Millett, Marketing Coordinator at National Marker.
Tell us about yourself
I am the Marketing Coordinator at National Marker and part of my job is to keep up to date on regulations that govern safety identification. I work to ensure our products meet current market and regulatory requirements. The regulations our products comply with are very diverse, ranging from environmental, health, labor, occupational and more.
What is Lockout/Tagout?
Lockout is the control of hazardous energy, or more commonly known as turning off the equipment in such a way as to prevent accidental turning on. Machines and equipment need to be turned off for safety reasons while being repaired or serviced. An employee mistakenly turning on a machine while another employee is performing maintenance can cause severe accidents and even death.
Tagout is used to augment lockout or in situations when the power switches are unable to be locked out. A tag provides a means of communication alerting other employees not to turn on the device. This message not to turn on the machine allows the technician to perform their work without worry that other employees may unknowingly turn on the machined.
Lockout/Tagout provides solutions to prevent machines from being turned on either by using a lock to physically prevent this, or a tag attached to the switch alerting employees to the danger. Each company has individual procedures to follow to ensure that the device is turned off and safe to work on.
Lockout/Tagout should always be used when performing repairs and routine maintenance. These procedures should also be applied to confined space situations. If a technician enters the confined space, this needs to be communicated to other employees not to lock the space, or to turn on any equipment associated with the confined space.
What safety standards and governing bodies does lockout/tagout fall under?
In the U.S., the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) regulates tagout procedures.
OSHA 1910.147 outlines the minimum requirements for locks and tags to be used when isolating energy equipment. Locks and tags must be able to hold up against a 50lb pull force. All locks and tags must have the identity of the technician who locked out the device, the date, and any other detail specific by the company. In some cases multiple locks and tags may be used for the same equipment if there are multiple on-switches for the device.
The Mine Safety & Health Administration (MSHA) also regulates lockout/tagout procedures in 56.12016. This regulation requires devices to be locked out and the technician doing the work to provide warning notices such as tags.
Give us a common Lockout/Tagout scenario
Many lockout accidents occur when an employee believes they can make a quick repair before anyone else will attempt to turn on the machine. The following example is based on a real lockout/tagout accident.
John Smith is a facility manager who came in early to make a quick repair before the next shift. John did not perform proper lockout/tagout procedures, believing he could make the repairs quickly before anyone turned on the machine. While John was up on the gantry crane making repairs, the next shift came in and started to turn on their machines. No one knew that John was up on the gantry crane and that he was in danger.
Without knowing that John was up there, the operator activated the crane for the day’s use. John did not have enough time to get to safety. The crane rolled over John’s foot, crushing it and causing a permanent injury. John is now unable to work and is on permanent disability.
Although John believed the repairs would be very quick, he did not anticipate that the other employees might come in early as well. Lockout/tagout should always be used when working in and around machinery, despite how quickly the repairs may be.
With NMC’s new machine-readable lockout tags, John would have been able to put a machine-readable tag on the machine. Other employees would have been able to see in the daily log that the crane had been locked out for repairs by John and that he estimated the repair would be very quick. Even if the employees do not check the log, the tag is still present to communicate John’s location. This level of communication greatly reduces the number of accidents and allows production teams to adjust their schedules around repairs and shutdowns.
What is the biggest mistake people make when it comes to lockout/tagout?
The single biggest mistake when it comes to lockout/tagout is not performing lockout/tagout procedures. An average of 50,000 injuries each year occurs on the job due to failure to perform lockout/tagout. Lockout violations continue to remain among the top 10 OSHA violations each year, usually among the top five.
This is not a new procedure. Performing these simple tasks saves lives and prevents costly injuries. Having a basic lockout procedure is better than not having any procedure in place at all.
What is the number 1 thing that people can do to improve their lockout/tagout procedure?
Training employees on proper lockout procedures can greatly increase the effectiveness of a lockout program. Failure to provide lockout training ranked third in lockout violations for 2009, which is closely related to another top ranked violation of failure to properly apply a lockout device.
Training should be provided on a regular basis to all employees who perform lockout tasks. This training should include what types of lockout devices to use and when, as well as the proper lockout procedures of knowing how to turn off a machine, the number of lockout devices are per machine, etc.
Regular training would remind employees of the proper way to perform lockout/tagout on machinery, which will reduce the number of injuries to fellow employees. In addition, providing regular training will reduce the number of OSHA violations in two categories: providing proper training and properly applying lockout/tagout devices.
What do you see as the biggest advance in lockout/tagout in the next 3 years?
The biggest advancement in lockout/tagout within the next three years will be the implementation of machine-readable lockout tags. Although these tags will not replace the current procedures, they will enhance the level and quality of communication surrounding a lockout event.
National Marker has introduced machine-readable lookout tags, which include both barcodes and RFID chips. Use of the RFID tag allows maintenance technicians to communication a lockout event across multiple shifts, when the machine will be operable and any other important information.
In addition, this technology will record data on a lockout event to a central location, allowing production managers to keep track of equipment across multiple facilities. This will allow them to adjust product schedules around unexpected lockout events.
This centralized data storage also provides an easy means of tracing lockout events for OSHA records, essentially eliminating the need for paper documentation that may be lost, illegible or out-of-date.
Tell us about National Marker?
National Marker is a premier safety identification manufacturer. We make things that inform people. Our products warn people of danger and tell them what to do in an emergency. Our products identify everything from welcome areas to hazardous chemicals. We serve many industries in North America, such as:
- Safety / Industrial / Electrical / MRO
- Parks and Recreation
- New Commercial Construction
- Municipal Traffic and Highway
- Janitorial and Sanitation
- Healthcare / Medical / Convalescent
- Retirement / Condo / Mobile Home
- Property Management / Multiple Dwelling Unit
- Marketing / Promotion: Retail, B2B
- Marine
