Safety at workplace

Safety at workplace

Everyone is aware about 5S.

5S is a methodology which helps to organize a workplace. Like any other lean manufacturing concept, 5S also helps to create efficiency. And this results in improved safety. Therefore many organizations now include S for Safety in their 5S and promote 6S's instead of 5S.

Leaders with operating responsibility have no charge greater than the safety of their people. Weaving that value for safety into the priorities of quality, on-time delivery and production can be daunting.

What is safety?

The condition or state of being safe; freedom from danger or hazard; exemption from hurt, injury, or loss!

Importance of safety

  1. Safety of the worker is important for keeping the family safe which is dependent. Worker earns money to feed  the family members and any mishap can ruin the life of the worker and even whole family
  2. No one likes to work in the job where life is at stake
  3. Safety measures are required to ensure safe life
  4. It is better to adopt safety measures which can avoid inflicted heavy losses
  5. Safety measures should be practiced by everyone and every where

What is accident?

An unplanned, unexpected, and undesigned (not purposefully caused) event which occurs suddenly and causes injury or loss, decrease in value of resources or an increase in liabilities

Why do accident occur?

Accident occurs due to:

1. Unsafe Conditions

2. Unsafe Act

What is incident?

Incident is an undesired event that may cause personal harm or other damage

Potential Hazards

In industry, we can get hurt due to....

  1. Impact - Falling or flying objects. 
  2. Penetration - Sharp objects that pierce into body
  3. Inhalation - Fumes
  4. Exposure - Chemicals 
  5. Heat - Furnaces / Sealing / Welding 
  6. Light - Lasers, Welding light, high intensity light 
  7. Electrical Voltage – Un-insulated live wires  
  8. Harmful Dust - Paints 
  9. Harmful  Noise - Steady sounds from machines

Safety Implementation - 4 Step Process - Car driving Example

Levels of Controls :

First - Engineering: use technological means to isolate or remove hazards from the workplace. For example, antilock brakes and front & rear bumpers are engineering controls

Second - Administrative:  reduce or eliminate exposure by changing the duration, frequency and/or severity of the exposure. In this example, having to obtain a driver's license and obeying traffic laws are administrative controls

Third - Work Practice:  try to reduce the likelihood of exposure to hazards by addressing the manner that the task is performed. In this example, not talking on a cell phone and not eating are work practice controls

Forth - Personal Protective Equipment(PPE): is the last line of defense and does not replace safe work practices. In this example, wearing your seatbelt would be considered using PPE

                            …. Based On Safety Risk Assessment / Field Testing

In case you missed it, my last post was Back to Basics: Housekeeping, muda Elimination, and Standardization

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