Shop Floor Safety — A Cause for Concern

With the recent raft of high-profile incidents, Jones hopes the silver lining in these clouds will be companies taking a long, hard look at their safety programs. Safe equipment operation, he says, embodies three criteria: machine guarding, lockout/tagout procedures and safe work practices.

Jones is amazed when he visits printers and finds evidence of the most basic safety breeches—long hair/pony tails, jewelry, long sleeves and other adornments that hang from the bodies of employees. Most issues can be remedied in a matter of seconds, but can potentially jeopardize lives. Other workers have taken a cavalier attitude toward the handling of equipment, perhaps attaining a comfort level after years of interacting with certain pieces of hardware.