4 Ways to Make Your Manufacturing Business Safer
Did you realize that every 7 seconds, an American worker is injured on the job? Not only do these accidents lead to serious injuries, but they can also cause a business to lose a lot of money. If you are the owner of a manufacturing-based business, you know all too well how dangerous this environment can be. Generally, a manufacturing business will have several machines in operation. While these machines are an essential part of the manufacturing process, they can create a dangerous work environment. Are you looking for a way to make your manufacturing business safer? If so, check out the helpful tips below.
1. Developing a Comprehensive Onboarding Process For New Employees
The lifeblood of any successful business is a knowledgeable and hard-working roster of employees. There will come a time when you have to hire new employees to lighten your existing team members’ workload. If these new employees are not trained properly, it is only a matter of time before accidents occur. The last thing you want to do is allow an untrained employee to operate the machines you have in place due to their danger. Before putting new employees to work, you need to ensure they are adequately trained. While properly training a new employee will be a bit time-consuming, it is definitely worth the effort you invest.
2. Work on Constantly Improving Indoor Air Quality
Some manufacturing business owners get so involved in avoiding machine-related accidents that they completely overlook the risk of poor indoor air quality. Typically, manufacturing-based businesses will use lots of petroleum products. These products are used for everything from cleaning the factory to producing goods. While these products work great, they often contain harmful chemicals. Substances like toluene, benzene, and acetone can create dangerous fumes. This is why performing an air quality analysis regularly is so important. With the results from this test, you can identify hazards that are present in your air supply. Working with air filtration professionals is the best way to remove these hazards for good.
3. Teach Employees How to Properly Lockout/Tagout a Machine
Having reliable and durable machines is vital when trying to have success in the manufacturing industry. The only way to keep the machines you have in place working efficiently is by maintaining them regularly. Teaching employees how to properly lockout/Tagout machines can help you reduce the frequency and severity of accidents that occur during machine maintenance. An adequate lockout/Tagout allows employees to cut a machine completely off before working on it.
4. Create a Pre-Operation Checklist
As any manufacturing business owner knows, manmade machines will fail at one time or another. Finding ways to reduce the damage caused by these failures should be one of your main concerns. Creating a pre-operation checklist for your employees to follow can be extremely beneficial. If employees inspect the machines before they are turned on, they are far more likely to detect problems before they cause lots of damage. Directing employees to inspect every square inch of their machine can igreatly increase your facility’s safety, which is why these pre-operation checklists are so crucial. If you are unsure about creating and enforcing safety policies for your manufacturing business, you may need to seek out professionals’ help in this industry. They will be able to perform an inspection of your facility and give you a breakdown of the problems they think need to be addressed.