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Ten worker safety and productivity tips for 2017: Rockwell

Jan. 11, 2017 – As a new year develops, trends in industrial automation will continue: the evolving workforce, globalization, the use of information to develop insight into plant operation, and concerns about security.

As we enter 2017, we have compiled a list of 10 tips to help you improve safety and productivity.

1. Understand your safety maturity level:
Assess your own safety maturity and how you compare to others. There is a significant difference from the top to the bottom of the spectrum. Best-in-class manufacturers — the top 20 per cent — achieve 5 to 7 per cent higher OEE, 2 to 4 per cent less unscheduled downtime and less than half the injury rate of average performers. These manufacturers share common attributes in three key areas: culture (behaviours), compliance (procedures), and capital (technology use). These interdependent elements each show four levels of performance based on the focus of the company: minimizing investment, attaining compliance, cost avoidance, or operational excellence. Understanding your performance level and areas for improvement is critical to optimizing performance.

2. Develop a strong safety culture:
Safety culture — the accepted behavioural norms of your organization – ultimately determines the safety of your workplace. Procedures and technology are critical as well, but if workers violate policy (often with management’s tacit approval), or override technology, worker safety and productivity will be compromised. This can have many negative effects on your business. A weak safety culture can undermine investments in procedures and technology.

3. Collaborate between EHS, engineering, operations:
This is a key attribute with clear correlation to attaining both safety and productivity, which is everyone’s responsibility. While EHS is the discipline most directly responsible for worker safety, they only directly control the least effective safety methods. Engineering, with responsibility for machinery design and guarding controls more effective methods, and shares responsibility for productivity with operations. Collaboration between these departments is critical to help maintain compliance, safety and productivity.

4. Perform job-based safety assessments early in the design process:
Most companies perform a risk assessment at some point. The questions are: Does the assessment consider everyone who will operate, maintain and otherwise come into contact with the machine, e.g. did the assessment leverage a cross-functional team? Does the assessment take place at its operating location, or in isolation at the machine builder, or both? When does the assessment take place — early in the design process when risks can be designed out? Or after the machine is designed and ready to ship? It’s vital to perform a risk assessment early in the design process and again after it is in place at its operating location to help verify compliance, safety, and productivity. Studies show that 60 to 70 per cent of safety incidents occur outside of normal operating mode.

5. Design ergonomic machinery:
Your most experienced workers are at high risk for musculoskeletal and repetitive stress injuries, which can often be chronic or career ending. In addition, today’s diverse workforce means machines should be built for a range of workers, including ambidextrous features, reducing repetitive motion, lifting and awkward placement of the body.

6. Use alternative protective measures to improve productivity:
Safety doesn’t have to come at the expense of productivity. Contemporary machinery design allows for minor service exceptions to lockout/tagout, where procedures are routine, repetitive and integral to the use of the equipment. Workers cannot be placed at higher risk, but there are alternative protective measures that can improve productivity by reducing downtime while still maintaining regulatory compliance.

7. Use established safety tools to reduce development time and help confirm compliance:
Designing safety systems can be challenging and time consuming. Today, safety design tools are available that can streamline development and help confirm compliance. Software is available help you manage the safety lifecycle and design your safety system. As well, safety function documents are available to help you implement machinery safety functions and include safety performance calculations, wiring, programming, verification and validation.

8. Develop a Connected Enterprise:
Harnessing the power of safety and operational data can substantially improve safety compliance and performance. The Connected Enterprise empowers safety professionals with real-time understanding of worker behaviours, machinery compliance, causes of safety shutdowns or stoppages, and safety anomalies and trends. It can also help improve your ability to hire, train and retain employees.

9. Understand the relationship between safety and security:
As industrial operations become more connected, organizations are making significant security investments to help protect their intellectual property, their operations and their brand. However, the inherent safety implications of security risks are too often overlooked. By integrating safety and security programs and following key steps, manufacturers and industrial operators can assess, manage and mitigate the safety implications of security risks.

10. Work with dependable allies:
Identify system integrators and machine builders with expertise in current safety standards, a proven track record in building safety systems, and knowledge of productivity-enhancing safety system design technologies.

Steve Ludwig is the commercial programs manager, Safety, at Rockwell Automation.

SOURCE Rockwell Automation blog