Don’t Lock Out Collaboration!

And why is it a program and not just an initiative? A program is something that involves more than just the safety officer giving advice and consent to workers and supervisors about a lockout. As every machine is different and every lockout process will be a little different, a safety officer must get engagement by workers and supervisors in order for the culture of safety to be pervasive. The program should have very general steps that can apply to any machinery and equipment, but each individual piece has their own specific lockout procedure to ensure that all equipment is safe and secure.

As with most safety culture or safety initiatives, collaboration is key. It would be wise to have the safety officer sit with supervisors and those who know the machinery and equipment to work together and come up with a thorough and proper lockout program across the entire worksite. Feedback can be provided by workers who work with the equipment regularly, and those who clean or maintain the equipment as well, making sure that all bases are covered so that any piece of equipment is properly locked out at the end of a shift or the end of a week if maintenance or cleaning is to be done on weekends, for example. Once a program is established, then not only should it be presented to the rank-and-file, but the workers themselves need to be engaged in the process of locking out equipment with supervision to ensure proper understanding and execution.

With that in mind, here are some steps to go through when building your lockout program:

• Normalize:  To help the program get ingrained, make it part of a regular daily production routine. The worker who works the equppment first each day should go through the unlocking process in the correct order, and the worker who uses it at the end of the day needs to lock the equipment in the proper order every day so it becomes part of routine. And it is said that when adding something new to your routine, it takes about two weeks for it to be embedded as a “second nature” aspect of routine. So keep up observations and feedback during those early days to ensure that everything is done the way it needs to be done.
• Convenience: Don’t make workers have to walk around the site to get the locks or tools needed for a lockout; they want to be productive, so making a lockout hard will mean cutting corners and compromising safety. Have everything they need for lockout or unlocking handy near the equipment, though not close enough that body parts could get into contact with the equipment.  Include lockout instructions nearby as well so they have a “cheat sheet” to make sure they don’t forget any of the steps.
• Optics: Often, it will be about perception. You are likely to get more buy-in to your lockout program if you are able to present it as a safety issue to protect workers rather than something technical or mechanical that has to be done upon orders from on high. Which isn’t hard and isn’t spin – this is about safety for all, and that is something that workers can certainly support.
• Mentor: Those who know lockout procedures should be floor-level mentors and observers, providing guidance and answering questions about lockout so it is done properly. Peers are often the most reliable resources and those who are the most accessible for those learning new initiatives.
• Verify: Sometimes, it’s actually doing (the practice) that trumps what’s on paper (the theory). Have workers actually go through the lockout procedure before they implement it (in computer speak, this might be called “going beta”). When actually doing the procedure, workers can easily identify any vague directions or even some mistakes in the program, which can then be addressed by mentors and relayed to the safety officer for changes and updates.
• Validate: Once a lockout procedure is complete, double-check its effectiveness by working the control panel for the machine. Make sure that when switches are flipped on, nothing moves and there is no energy flowing to the machine. If there is, then something was not done correctly or at all, and the procedure will need to be reviewed. Once the correction is made, you should then re-verify the changes and then re-validate to ensure that the lockout is complete.

It is one thing to make sure a machine is unplugged; it’s another thing entirely to have your machinery completely locked out so there is a maximum level of safety for workers who are around the equipment either for cleaning or maintenance. There is no need to take chances that are … well, needless.

For more information, check out the January/February 2016 issue of OHS Canada magazine at www.ohscanada.com.