Manufacturing Safety: 10 Tips for a Safer Workplace

These are the 5 most common safety hazards in the manufacturing industry, based on frequency of OSHA violations:

• Machine Guarding: OSHA requires that certain pieces of equipment have specific protection mechanisms in place. This is what’s known as machine guarding. Examples of machine guarding include barriers, light curtains, and two-hand trips.
• Lockout/Tagout: OSHA’s Control of Hazardous Energy control programs, usually called the “Lockout/Tagout” standard (or LOTO for short), outlines what workers should do to safely depower dangerous machines.
• Hazard Communication: OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard is the way you’re supposed to inform your employees about dangerous chemicals in the workplace. It’s a set of rules that covers labeling and tracking chemicals, as well as employee training on chemicals.
• Respiratory Protection: OSHA’s respiratory protection standard outlines how organizations should minimize worker exposure to hazardous air.
• Electrical Wiring Methods: Wiring is one of the most common sources of electrical hazards. Wires—particularly flexible wires—cover wide areas, may be misconfigured, and can wear down easily, making hazards difficult to manage.

This is one of the most important industrial safety tips as it can be a matter of life and death. Consider what steps you and your team take in the aftermath of a manufacturing safety incident. Are you prepared to act quickly? After all, a lot can happen in 30 minutes, and swift action could be the deciding factor in saving money and saving lives.

Effective emergency response starts with preparation. If you have a plan, you can maximize the moments immediately following an incident—and minimize the fallout.

Here’s a 10-step procedure recommended by manufacturing health and safety experts:

• Have a plan and work the plan.
• Let the worker know you will take care of them.
• Do an initial diagnosis.
• Administer first aid.
• Calm the worker.
• Control hazards that caused the injury if needed.
• Get help quickly if needed.
• Have a manager accompany the worker to the clinic.
• Follow up after the incident.
• Complete case management.

Audits and inspections are the cornerstones of safety programs for manufacturing. If it’s been a while since you last conducted a safety inspection or audit—or if you’ve never one before—it’s time to get to work. By evaluating your facilities, people, and processes, you’ll make your workplace a whole lot safer, more efficient, and more compliant with state and federal health and safety regulations.

Learn the keys to safety audits and inspections.

To improve manufacturing safety at your facility, you and your team will need to take corrective and preventive actions.

When inspections and audits are complete, be sure to follow through on what you found out. If you discover any issues, direct employees to take corrective actions to resolve those issues. If no immediate hazards are identified but there are areas that could become worse or need improvement, take preventive measures.

Learn why corrective and preventive actions are critical for a manufacturing safety program.

Manufacturing training is essential for making sure your workers can do their jobs, operate machinery, and wear and maintain safety equipment correctly. Make sure all workers are trained on the first days of their jobs, and periodically thereafter. Workers will need to be trained on any new processes, policies, machines, and regulations as well.

Did you know that KPA offers an award-winning library of manufacturing training courses? Check out samples of our popular manufacturing training titles.

To train your workforce as effectively as possible, you’ll need to…

• Know your audience.  Take time to understand the individual learner—or learners—that are taking the training and adjust your content accordingly.
• Use real-world examples. Incorporate real-world examples into your training materials to improve retention, drive engagement, and provide opportunities for employees to practice scenarios.
• Assess prior knowledge. Ask questions throughout your training to empower learners, drive engagement, challenge novice learners, and acknowledge prior experience.
• Promote behavioral change through repetition. Set a training schedule with different activities, deliver training in different formats (videos, audio narratives, live performances, role-plays, journaling, etc.), and reinforce concepts by applying them to tangible details of the job.

Download The Keys to Better Workforce Training eBook.

In addition to training, you need to conduct safety meetings regularly. Some manufacturers conduct safety meetings once every 3 months; others conduct them every month or even multiple times per month. If you’re seeing increased accident rates and your safety program isn’t performing well, you likely need to increase the frequency of your safety meetings.

Keep in mind that a safety meeting is not a toolbox talk. A toolbox talk is an informal and usually very short (5–10-minute) conversation about a particular hazard—usually one that pertains to a project people are currently working on. Safety meetings are more formal than toolbox talks, and typically longer.

To run safety meetings the right way, do the following:

• focus on one issue at a time
• keep it not too long, but not too short (20–45 minutes)
• involve your employees in creating and running the meetings
• use different approaches and a mix of media (videos, slideshows, interactive activities, etc.) to make it interesting
• document everything to track the results and improve future safety meetings

A good manufacturing safety program is centered on people. It’s for, about, and by people. In other words, your company needs to take care of employees and also make sure employees are taking care of themselves and each other.

This is what’s known as a safety culture. It’s about going beyond paying lip service to safety and genuinely embedding worker well-being in the beliefs and values that unite your workforce.

To establish a safety culture, you need to take stock of your organization’s current culture, determine what needs to be improved, and make safety a habit for every member of your workforce.

Learn 5 critical habits for building an effective safety culture.

Too many manufacturers overlook this industrial safety tip—and face significant costs as a result. Make sure to fill out and file all OSHA Forms 301, 300, and 300A as required for your organization.

Generally speaking, you don’t need to mail forms to OSHA. However, if your facility receives a Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses Form from the Bureau of Labor Statistics or their designee, you must complete the form and return it following the instructions. Your facility may also need to electronically report accident information to OSHA.

Many companies are required to submit information electronically to OSHA.

• Organizations with 250 or more employees at a single establishment must file all forms—301, 300, and 300A.
• Organizations with 20-249 employees in certain high-risk industries (such as commercial truck shops, automotive parts manufacturers, and transportation facilities) must submit Form 300A.
• Organizations with fewer than 20 employees at all times during the year do not have to routinely submit information electronically to OSHA.

Visit the OSHA Reporting Resource Hub

You can’t rely on pens, paper, and manual systems to keep your people safe and compliant in a highly complex, constantly changing world. Fortunately, there are plenty of apps built for manufacturing safety and compliance.

Look for software that supports the functions and initiatives above—audits, inspections, incident response, training, reporting, and so forth. Also consider variables such as cost, accessibility, ease of use, and flexibility. Learn 12 steps to buying EHS software.

Mobile-readiness is essential. Manufacturing compliance and EHS mobile apps bring the power of workforce safety software to a convenient, easy-to-use format. With key safety and compliance tools within your reach at all times, you’ll stay ahead of the various risks that threaten workers’ safety and your organization’s bottom line.

(Need help convincing your leadership to invest in safety software? Here’s how to fit software into any budget.)