The manufacturing environment poses unique challenges to worker health and safety, given how complex and fast-paced it is. With a preventative maintenance program, systems for investigating and reporting near misses, and a change management process, however, you can reduce risk throughout the facility. And implementing these strategies will make it easier to improve quality and productivity outcomes as well.
Manufacturing Safety Risks
Managing risks in manufacturing can be difficult, given the sheer size and continuous motion of the operation. From the trailer yard to the production floor, there are lots of areas to manage, and often, a small team oversees EHS performance. In manufacturing, the top sources of safety risks are:
- Hazardous machinery and equipment
- Repetitive job tasks and motions
- Overhead objects
- Electrical components
- Chemicals and other hazardous substances
You’ll come across any combination of these risks in every area of your facility. That’s why having a proactive safety management system in place is essential for incident prevention.
Proactive Safety Management Strategies
Being proactive is all about having a plan and executing it. You don’t wait for incidents to happen. You seek risks out and find ways to reduce or eliminate them altogether. These are the top strategies you can use to lower risk and prevent manufacturing safety incidents.
Preventative Maintenance
Equipment is one of the biggest safety hazards in any manufacturing facility. That’s why routine maintenance is critical to not only EHS outcomes, but overall operational performance as well.
Build a strong preventative maintenance program by:
- Creating a maintenance schedule for each piece of hazardous equipment
- Assigning action items to your facilities team and tracking completion
- Documenting all preventative maintenance activities
- Rotating equipment (when possible) so you can perform upgrades and repairs
- Keeping an updated list of replacement schedules for parts and components
The key to success here is making sure you follow up with your schedule. If you don’t track your team’s progress, preventative maintenance will fall to the wayside as “more pressing issues” take over. Proactive safety management is all about finding and controlling failure points within the system.
Near Miss Investigation
Near misses tell you where you’re heading if you don’t make changes to your safety procedures. You can ask questions like these to get helpful insights from each investigation:
- What tools or equipment were involved in the near miss?
- At what stage within the process did it occur?
- What control measures (if any) are currently in place to prevent this kind of incident?
- Has this type of near miss happened before?
- To what extent did employee behavior play a role?
Failing to investigate near misses means you miss out on all the insights you’d otherwise gain. In addition to safety improvements, you might also find ways to improve quality and productivity, too. That may mean installing new monitoring equipment, replacing or repairing process equipment, establishing new procedures and policies, or updating training.
Hazard Reporting
Manufacturing facilities are complex, and your EHS department won’t be able to find every safety concern on its own. Having a way for frontline workers to report hazards is a great way to take a proactive safety management approach.
The best practice for collecting hazard reports is using a digital mechanism like an email address or form link where employees can send the information. But if you’re a small operation and have the bandwidth to manage it, physical forms and drop-off locations work well too.
Encouraging your employees to report hazards builds a stronger safety culture. You can take it to the next level by following up with anyone who reports something by telling or showing them what you’ve done to address it. This grows trust between employees and the EHS department and can reinforce the proactive mindset you want your team to adopt.
Change Management
Another critical area of proactive safety is formal change management. Oftentimes, unmanaged changes lead to completely preventable safety incidents. A good example of this is changes to manufacturing equipment.
Imagine, for example, that you install a new machine on the production line and don’t conduct inspections, tests, and training before your team starts using it. This increases the risk of a safety incident exponentially, and it’s entirely avoidable.
While the management of change (MOC) portion of OSHA’s PSM standard only applies to certain types of operations, you can apply the principles to any manufacturing setting. Here are some of the best practices your team should follow:
- Thoroughly document all changes to critical process equipment.
- Assign someone to review and approve changes before you start implementation.
- Do a pre-startup safety review (PSSR) for equipment changes.
- Have a change management committee or team dedicated to this process.
- Use management of change software to coordinate and document changes.
- Create a rubric for evaluating change requests and deciding whether to fulfill them.
Following a formal change management process gives you the space to think about the impact of your decisions. In manufacturing, where production deadlines reign supreme, this can be a game changer for reducing operational safety risks (and costs too).
Total Workforce Involvement
Getting your entire workforce involved in your EHS program is the key to proactive safety management. From the C-Suite to the production floor, it’s important that everyone understands and follows their role in incident prevention.
Here are some tips for achieving total workforce involvement:
- Do safety perception surveys often to collect internal feedback.
- Create HR policies that support and enforce safety procedures.
- Schedule safety walkthroughs with site leadership each month.
- Start a safety committee that includes workers from all areas of the facility.
- Make safety a part of your weekly Gemba exercise.
- Communicate with the entire facility regarding recent near misses or incidents.
Remember that this doesn’t happen overnight. Proactive safety management requires consistent effort and continuous improvement to work long-term. The best thing you can do is regularly monitor risks and have ongoing discussions with your team about how to address them.
The more input and feedback you get from frontline workers, the better your control measures will be. And not only in terms of effectiveness, but sustainability as well. Together, you can come up with systems and procedures that support positive safety outcomes for both current and future workers.
