Why is a Machine Safety Program So Important?

An effective machine safety program will look beyond the minimum requirements of the law and include a holistic approach toward prevention of injuries, reduction of risk exposure, and enhancement of productivity. 

Adding in engineering’s constant push to modify and expand existing production capabilities with new equipment and technologies, you may find yourself quickly behind the curve playing catch up. You can refer to https://www.breservices.com.au/safety-services/ to learn about machine safety services.

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There can easily be too many people involved in decision making with very little ownership or accountability, resulting in increased risk for the company.

What should be included in every machine safety program?

This is the overarching question that your organization needs to ask itself. And answers are generated by a committee including Safety, Operations, Engineering, and Maintenance. Here are some of the bigger topics that the committee will need to address:

  • Choose safety standards to follow. What does this mean? Having a minimum set of required safety standards for the corporation. And what this does is drive consistency across the organization, eliminates opinions and subjectivity, and provides justification that your equipment is both safe and compliant with regulatory requirements.

  • Define a risk assessment process. What does this include? Most risk assessment standards define methodologies for assessing and reducing risk, but many leave a lot of wiggle room for how “risk levels” are calculated. Without selecting an assessment process and defining a scoring matrix, results will vary widely across your organization.

  • Choose your acceptable risk. Risks of injuries can never be fully eliminated. Your organization needs to choose what level of risk you are willing to accept. Without this, you’re letting OEMs, onsite contractors, and others in your own company choose your level of comfort.

These are the things that should be included in every machine safety program.