Safety is a top concern for manufacturers. Because manufacturing shops are prone to accidents, it’s important to make safety a priority to ensure the best working environment for your employees. Most shops have a safety plan in place that adheres to basic OSHA regulations, but there is always room for improvement. Here are some tips to help improve safety on your shop floor.
1. Establish a Culture of Safety
Manufacturers with the best safety records typically have a good safety culture. Establishing a culture of safety in your shop is a great way to get people to care about safety and make it a priority. This culture needs to start at the top and then be adopted by front-line workers. Establishing a culture of safety means getting people in the mindset that safety is everyone’s responsibility. Communicating the importance of safety in the workplace will help get your employees to think about safety with everything they do.
2. Avoid the Fatigue Factor
Fatigue is a major cause of accidents and injury in the manufacturing industry. One of the biggest contributors to worker fatigue is monotonous work. In order to break up the monotony, be sure to have small breaks in the production process built in to the schedule. Longer breaks to break up the day are important, but workers performing repetitive tasks need small, frequent breaks as well to prevent fatigue. You should also consider building rotations into your processes to avoid one person performing the same repetitive task all day. Breaking up a monotonous process will help prevent fatigue and keep workers more active and engaged, making them less likely to have an accident.
3. Create Checklist and Safety Programs
Most manufacturers have safety program that adhere to basic OSHA regulations. However, you should also develop a safety program that addresses the specific needs of your shop. Identify every potential safety risk in your shop and create rules that will prevent these issues. You should also create a plan for action if an accident does occur. Once you’ve established a set of rules, you should create checklists that employees should follow on a daily basis. Be sure to encourage everyone to follow these rules and use management to enforce them. Creating clear checklist and procedures for different scenarios will simplify safety precautions and make employees more likely to engage.
4. Constantly Update
One of the most important things to remember about your safety plan is that it should be constantly changing. When an accident or injury occurs, it should always be reported. Based on the report, you can learn what went wrong to lead to the accident. You can then use this information to alter your safety plan. In some cases, you might find that you need to establish a new rule that will address the problem. In other cases, you might find that the accident occurred because a rule was not followed. In these cases, you can take steps to make the rule easier to follow to ensure that it’s followed in the future. Learning from your mistakes and constantly updating your program will ensure that your safety program is constantly improving.
5. Invest in Regular Training
It’s important to regularly train your employees. Properly training employees when they get hired is important, but it’s not enough. You should regularly communicate the importance of safety and protocol to your employees. Consider holding regular refresher courses and training to remind employees of safety procedures. You should also invest in regular updates to make sure that employees are up to date on any new changes to your safety program.
6. Take Advantage of Technology
It’s important to take advantage of smart manufacturing and IoT to improve safety on your shop floor. These advances in technology allow you to simulate manufacturing processes and see the results. You can collect data about the processes and analyze them. Gathering this information allows you the ability to make adjustments to processes to increase safety without sacrificing productivity. Taking advantage of IoT technology is the best way to help you understand and analyze your processes to improve safety procedures.
7. Reward Employees
In order to promote safety and encourage a culture of safety in your shop, your employees need to participate. The best way to motivate employees to participate is to reward them. Celebrate milestones such as 30 days without an accident. Set goals and create incentives to reach them such as rewards and gifts. Rewarding employees for following safety protocol and reaching goals is the best way to encourage participation. You can also consider holding regular safety meetings. These meetings will provide an opportunity to talk about safety and provide new training. When you provide rewards for your employees at these meetings, they will look forward to them and be more likely to participate.
CAMM Metals | CT Welding and Manufacturing Company
It's crucial to do your research when choosing a metal fabrication, as not all companies are capable of completing the same quality of work. CAMM Metals has years of experience, honing our skills across the board to deliver a quality product and measurable bottom line value to our customers.
