View original at www.manufacturing.net

There have been significant improvements in the area of safety over the past few decades, but in spite of this, manufacturing is still considered to be a dangerous occupation. Injuries caused on manufacturing floors have resulted in major lawsuits and damaged reputation, apart from affecting employee morale and reduced productivity. While it may be impossible to prevent every single injury, you can reduce the rate of injury significantly by employing a few safety measures. One way to do so is by choosing the right material handling equipment . Let us look at five other safety measures that help in reducing accidents on the shop floor. Assess Machine Risk One way to improve safety is by identifying, analyzing and removing hazards that employees may be exposed to in the workstation. Assess machine and electrical risk by asking three critical questions: What hazards are the employees exposed to? How can the hazards harm the employees? How can you remove or control these hazards? Once you can clearly answer these questions, you will be able to identify numerous areas where you can make safety improvements. Training An unsafe work environment is usually a result of improper training. If the employees are not aware of the potential dangers on the manufacturing floor, they will put themselves at risk of serious accidents. You can eliminate this risk by providing safety training and ensuring the new employees are taught essential safety practices. Train them to use equipment such as industrial floor scales correctly and in a way that doesn’t put them at any risk. Make training sessions a priority from the beginning rather than as an afterthought. Use Personal P rotection Equipment Personal protection equipment, also known PPE, is essential to employee safety. You must have access to the right kind of PPE for the […]