Safety! When someone mentions this word, you are guaranteed to get a reaction. Many times the reaction is not a positive one. Reactions may include a simple shrug, frustration or a glassy eyed stare. Some may take the opportunity to get a short nap if you “talk safety” long enough.

If you want a positive reaction when you talk to your workers about safety, use positive opportunities. Do not limit your safety talks to training lectures or “corrections”. Take time to find someone doing something right and give some recognition for good safety performance. Letting your workers know you notice and recognize their effort is a powerful management tool. Short, frequent safety reminders, given in a positive tone will ensure your people know your safety expectations.

Basically; safety is two things- getting people to do things right and eliminating workplace hazards. Safety is also seen by many as an endless series of rules and regulations that just slow down production efforts… until there is an accident that could have been prevented by simply following the rules. The term for this is “operation to the point of failure.” Accidents and injuries are failures on our part, specifically failure to properly train, monitor, inspect, correct and supervise every hour of every day.

Controlling hazards by creating and maintaining safe work areas is our job as owners and operators. A safe owner checks the work areas each day before the workers arrive to make sure there are no hazardous conditions. Because nothing stays the same, a safe owner monitors the work area conditions continuously throughout the workday and immediately corrects unsafe conditions.

Your workers watch your every action and hear every thing you say. You will not be very effective if you talk safety and do not follow all the rules yourself. Show an honest concern for your people by setting a good safety example- it’s one of the purposes of having supervisors- to guide and lead by example in your absence.

Rick Scott is the Safety Director for A Plus Benefits, Inc.

Many Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) health, safety, general industry and construction standards require employers to provide their employees with protective equipment, including personal protective equipment (PPE), when such equipment is necessary to protect employees form job-related injuries, illnesses, and fatalities.

These requirements are codified in Part 1910 (General Industry standards) and Part 1926 (Construction standards) of Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations. These requirements address PPE of many kinds: hard hats, gloves, goggles, safety shoes, safety glasses, welding helmets and goggles, face shields, chemical protective equipment and clothing, fall protection equipment, and so forth. The provisions in OSHA standards that require PPE generally state that the employer is to provide such PPE; however, some of these provisions do not specify that the employer is to provide such PPE at no cost to the employee.

OSHA has attempted to establish a policy and clarify the issue of payment for required PPE in a memorandum to its field staff dated October 18, 1994. “Employer Obligation to Pay for PPE”. OSHA stated that for all PPE standards the employer must both provide, and pay for, the required PPE.

What are OSHA’s reasons for their decision?
The OSHAct. The Act of 1970 requires employers to provide a safe and healthful workplace for their employees. This mandate includes the financial obligation of employers to provide controls to address hazards that could cause injury or physical harm to their employees.

PPE is also a hazard control measure. Most standards require employers to implement engineering controls, such as ventilation or barriers, and administrative controls, such as regulated areas or danger zones, because these are typically thought to be the primary ways to reduce hazardous exposures to employees. There has never been any doubt that employers pay for these controls.

PPE is another type of control measure that is often necessary to reduce exposures to health and safety hazards. In many cases, PPE use supplements engineering, work practice, and administrative controls where such controls do not provide adequate protection. In some circumstances, such as in some maintenance work, PPE is used as the sole or primary means to protect employees.

Consequently, it is appropriate for OSHA standards to require employers both to implement and to pay for PPE as a hazard control measure, just as they do for engineering and administrative controls.

Examples of PPE that OSHA requires the employer to provide at no cost to the employee:

Safety Belts
Lanyards
Harnesses
Ladders
Gloves
Ear Plugs
Head Gear
Welding Helmets
Safety Shoes
Respirators

For additional information please refer Federal Register Employer Payment for Personal Protective Equipment 64:15401-15441.

As an employer you must also train employees who are required to wear PPE on how to do the following:

Use PPE properly, in accordance with manufacturer specifications.
Be aware what kind of PPE is necessary for the task.
Understand the limitations of PPE in protecting employees from injury.
Don, adjust, wear, and doff PPE and maintain PPE properly.

Rick Scott is the Safety Director for A Plus Benefits, Inc.

OSHA Requirement:
Subpart K-Medical and First Aid
1910.151

The employer shall ensure the ready availability of medical personnel for advice and consultation on matter of plant health.

Employer shall provide a person who is adequately trained to render first aid.

Adequate first aid supplies shall be readily available.

As an owner, operator, manager or supervisor, you will most probably be the first to respond to a workplace injury. Be prepared to take charge and be able to provide some basic first aid.

Workplace injuries may include the following:
Cuts and lacerations
Broken bones
Electrical Shock
Eye Injuries
Thermal and Chemical Burns
Chemical Reactions

– Recommended Procedures to Follow –
Step 1 - When you encounter a first aid situation you must first gain control of yourself. This will enable you to calmly assess the situation, provide direction and make decisions with a cool head.

Step 2 - If the employee’s injury is life or limb threatening (excess loss of blood, severed limb, etc.), the employee should report to the nearest emergency facility or call 911.

Step 3 - Check for breathing and circulation. Administer CPR if needed.

Step 4 - If the injured person is conscious, help keep them calm by reassuring them that they will be all right and that help is on the way. If you provide any first aid, tell them what you are going to do and why.

Step 5 - Never move a person with any serious injuries unless absolutely necessary. Let medical help come to them unless they are in an unsafe situation such as a fire

Bleeding
Apply bandages and direct pressure to stop bleeding. Once in place, never remove a bandage- simply add more over the old one if necessary.

Chemicals
A good general procedure for chemical exposure to the outside of the body is to flush with large amounts of water for at least 20 minutes. Not all chemicals are the same so know the specific first aid procedures in the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for the chemicals your workers use or work around. Get immediate medical help for any chemicals that have been ingested or inhaled. Always provide a copy of the MSDS to the Emergency Medical Technicians or to the Emergency Room Nurse.

Shock
With any serious injury, look for signs of shock. Lay the person down and cover to keep them warm. Do not give an injured person anything to eat or drink.

Suggested Inventory for your first aid kit:
1-5.5 inch scissor
5- Fingertip Bandages
4-Butterfly Bandages
3-4X4 Gauze Pads
4-Alcohol Prep Pads
3-Betadine Prep Pads
2-Roller Gauze
2-Packs of Non-Aspirin
1-Eye Wash
1-Instant Ice Pack
1-Safety Light
1-CPR Mask
1-First Aid book
10-Bandages 1X3
3-2X2 Gauze pads
1-Roll of tape
4-Antibiotic Ointment
1-Triangular Bandage
1-Ace Bandage
1-Ipecac
2-Oval eye pads

First Aid kits can be purchased for $30-35 from Stat Medical. Call 1-801-261-4363 and ask for Russ Hansen.

Rick Scott is the Safety Director for A Plus Benefits, Inc.

For most employers, Workers Compensation costs make up two to ten percent of payroll costs. To control these costs, a company must implement loss prevention and control measures that typically lead to fewer on-the-job injuries and illnesses and, thus, result in reduced insurance claims, and employer must:

Reduce the number of employee injuries.
Properly manage injuries that do occur.
Effectively finance the cost of these injuries.

As part of an effective accident prevention strategy, a company must recognize that its hiring practices, specifically selection and placement are an important part of the effort to control accident related costs, including workers compensation.

To best ensure this, an applicant’s attitude toward safety should be gauged during the interview process and used as a hiring criterion. The following five practices can be used to optimize employee selection and placement with respect to safety:

Interview Process: Preparation Employers must exercise caution throughout all phases of the hiring processes to ensure that they do not violate federal and state discrimination laws.

Job Descriptions: A written job description is an essential tool in the employee selection and placement process. Not only can it help to prevent accidents by ensuring that an applicant is qualified for the job, it also helps to prevent misunderstandings about job expectations.

Interview Process: Behavior Based Interview Questions. An interview is designed to gather information on a candidate and clarify information from other sources. To asses an applicant’s attitude toward safety, an employer may wish to develop behavioral description interview questions.

Pre-employment Testing: This requirement is the best predictor of success on the job. The use of nondiscriminatory pre-employment tests can be of great benefit in identifying superior candidates. To facilitate accident prevention, an employer may consider employee screening tests and drug testing.

New Hire Orientation: According to OSHA, research has identified length of time on the job as a variable related to a disproportionate share of injuries and illnesses at the worksite on the part of employees. In other words, new employees have higher accident incident rates. Remember, 30 percent of WC claims are filed within the first 90 days of employment. Literature shows that 70 percent of employees who rated orientation highly were likely to stay on the job at least three years.

By reducing the number of employee injuries, an employer can control accident costs and ultimately WC costs. Effective hiring practices such as those detailed here should be viewed as a key component as more carriers begin to scrutinize hiring practices as part of their rating and coverage process. Adopting and implementing such practices will further serve employers.

Rick Scott is the Safety Director for A Plus Benefits, Inc.

Does your facility have any of the following?
• Crowded spaces with equipment, parts and tools.
• Unneeded items stacked between workers, walls and doors.
• Excess inventory.
• Excess items and machines that make it difficult to improve process flow.
• In-operable and a collection point for miscellaneous materials.
• Needed equipment, such as tools, that are difficult to find.
• Records that show injuries and illnesses are on the rise.

These are signs that your facility may be in need of a “Five S Program”. Many companies in different types of industries apply techniques like Just in Time (JIT) production, Total Production (TPM) or Total Quality Management (TQM) to realize and maintain the high standards their customer demands. These techniques are the steps to construct a program that includes a systematic, organized and standardized workplace.

I recommend the “Five S Program” to implement a sustainable program that will renew the condition of your facility and keep it that way. The key to a successful implementation is developing self-directed employees. Based on this fact we will take a team-focused approach when developing and implementing a Five S Program in your facility. Team based activity will result in improved pride and ownership within the work place. When people feel their thoughts and ideas are truly valued, they are more willing to apply themselves to activities that will improve their performance as well as the company’s.

What is Five S?
A Five S program focuses on organization, cleanliness and standardization to improve profitability, efficiency, service and safety. The underlying principles of a Five S program will appear to be simple and obvious. They are. But until the advent of Five S Programs many businesses ignored these basic principles.

What is each S? Benefits of Five S Program
Sort Improve safety
-Get rid of clutter

Set in Order Improve morale
-Organize the work area

Shine Ownership of workplace
-Clean the work area

Standardize Improve productivity
-Use standard methods to keep Sorted, Set in Order and Shine to condition

Sustain I mproved maintenance
-Maintain through empowerment, commitment, and discipline

Many companies already apply the Five S Program. Visitors of these companies are always impressed. And customers are impressed too, so they know they have chosen the right supplier!

What does a Five S Program do for me?
The bottom line is that a Five S Program will improve profits, and at the same time improve both quality and safety. It does this by reducing wasted time and materials; improving daily or shift startup times; reducing maintenance and downtime; improving efficiency and productivity; improving employee morale; and simplifying the work environment.

What types of businesses benefit from a Five S Program?
Everyone and all types of business. Manufacturing, construction and industrial plants come to mind first, as those are the businesses that can realize the greatest benefits. However, any type of business from retail store to a dentist office will benefit from a Fire S Program.

What will it cost me?
The shipyard industry is spending nearly a million dollars to develop a Five S Program that the industry can use and wants to implement this program at two shipyards. On the other hand, you can implement a Five S Program without adding an extra dollar to your budget.

Realistically you probably will need to spend some extra money to get your Five S Program going. There will be training time; man-hours spent to get your facility cleaned up and organized; equipment purchases, such as buying a quality labeling system; and time spent on sustaining your Five S Program once it is in place.

Your actual costs will depend on where you are now — for example what is the condition of your facility? The further you are from meeting the goals of a Five S Program, the more it will cost to implement one and the greater the benefits you’ll see as a result of your Five S Program.

How do I implement this Five S Program?
Step 1: “Sorting” means to sort through everything in each work area. Keep only what is necessary. Materials, tools, equipment and supplies that are not frequently used should be moved to a separate, common storage area. Items that are not used should be discarded, sold, or re-cycled.

Don’t keep things around just because they might be used someday.

Sorting is the first step in making a work area tidy. It makes it easier to find the things you need and frees up additional space.

As a result of the sorting process you will eliminate (or repair) broken equipment and tools. Obsolete fixtures, molds, jigs, scrap materials, waste and other unused items should be disposed of.

Step 2: Step two is to organize, arrange and identify everything in a work area for the most efficient and effective retrieval and return to its proper place.

Commonly used tools should be readily available. Storage areas, cabinets and shelves should be properly labeled. Paint floors to make it easier to spot dirt, waste materials and dropped parts and tools. Outline areas on the floor to identify work areas, storage areas, finished product areas, etc. Put shadows on tool boards, making it easy to quickly see where each tool belongs.
In an office, provide bookshelves for frequently used manuals, books and catalogs. Label the shelves and books so that they are easy to identify and readily return to their proper place.
The objective in this step is: a place for everything and everything in its place, with everything properly identified and labeled.

This means there are two important parts to Systematic Organization - putting everything in its proper place and setting up a system so that it is easy to return each item to its proper place. The second part is where good labeling and identification practices are important. Both the equipment/tools and materials you use, as well as their proper storage locations, need to be clearly identified and labeled.

Systematic organization not only refers to individual work areas. Your overall facility should also be systematically organized, including the proper placement of easy-to-understand labels and signs. Piping, valves, control panels, major equipment, doorways, minor equipment, instruments, storage areas, offices and files should all be clearly identified.

Step 3: Once you have everything from each individual work area up to your entire facility, sorted
(cleaned up) and organized, you need to keep it that way. This requires regular cleaning, or to go along with our third S, “shining” things up.

Regular, usually daily, cleaning is needed or everything will return to the way it was. This could also be thought of as inspecting. While cleaning, it’s easy to also inspect the machines, tools, equipment and supplies you work with.

Regular cleaning and inspection makes it easy to spot lubricant leaks, equipment misalignment, breakage, missing tools and low levels of supplies. Problems can be identified and fixed when they are small. If these minor problems are not addressed while small, they could lead to equipment failure, unplanned outages or long unproductive waits while new supplies are delivered.

When done on a regular, frequent basis, cleaning and inspecting generally will not take a lot of time, and in the long run will most likely save time.

Step 4: “Every well thought-out process is simple.” Henry Ford

To ensure that the first three steps in your Five S program continue to be effective, the fourth step is to simplify and standardize.

The good practices developed in steps 1 through 3 should be standardized and made easy to accomplish. Develop a work structure that will support the new practices and make them into habits. As you learn more, update and modify the standards to make the process simpler and easier.
One of the hardest steps is avoiding old work habits. It’s easy to slip back into what you’ve been doing for years. That’s what everyone is familiar with. It feels comfortable.

Use standards to help people work into new habits that are a part of your Five S program.
An easy way to make people aware of, and remind them about the standards is to use labels, signs, posters and banners.

For example, use a Poster Printer to create large format signs, posters and banners. A Poster Printer is a machine that takes an 8-1/2″ x 11″ original and enlarges it to poster size.

Step 5: The final step is to continue training and maintaining the standards. Have a formal system for monitoring the results of your Five S program.

Don’t expect that you can clean up, get things organized and labeled, and ask people to clean and inspect their areas every day — and then have everything continue to happen without any follow-up.

Continue to educate people about maintaining standards. What changes there are - such as new equipment, new products, and new work rules that will affect your Five S program and adjustments to accommodate those changes.

Think of this step as sustaining the benefits you are getting from your Five S program.

Use equipment such as labelers, sign makers and Poster Printers to help inform and educate people about your Five S program, new procedures and standards.

Rick Scott is the Safety Director for A Plus Benefits, Inc.