Safety lockouts, also known as a lockout or tagout (LOTO) procedures, are systematic safety practices used to prevent potential risks or hazards from machinery, equipment, or dangerous situations involving hazardous materials. The purpose of a safety lockout is to protect workers from potential injuries, accidents, or health risks in their work environment. These lockouts could be caused by various situations such as the sudden activation of machinery or equipment while it is being worked on, spills of hazardous materials and more. They are relevant for a wide range of industrial settings, including manufacturing, construction, energy, and more. Common instances where safety lockout procedures are used include the maintenance and repair of machinery, removing obstructions from machinery, adjusting or calibrating equipment, hazardous material contamination and spills. The safety lockout procedure involves a series of systematic steps to isolate and control the sources of the risk.
In this blog, we will explore how Sodales for Enterprise Health, Safety, and Employee Relations can help organizations in industrial sectors address and manage the key safety objectives of implementing safety lockouts.
Safety lockout procedures are often mandated by regulatory agencies such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the United States, or Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) in Ontario. Compliance with regulatory bodies is essential to ensure the safety of workers. Organizations need to ensure an accurate documentation of lockout procedures, including equipment details, isolation points involved, lockout duration, and personnel involved in each lockout. Sodales provides these industries with a single full-suite platform that allows organizations that require safety lockouts to eliminate manual processes with pre-built industry process flows for incidents, accidents, inspections, audits, and more.
The key objective of implementing safety lockouts in industrial settings is to prevent injuries, fatalities, and accidents, and to comply with regulatory requirements and industry standards related to workplace safety. “Lockout and tagout is a common health and safety practice that should be part of every workplace”, says Michael Wilson, Workplace Safety and Prevention Services (WSPS). The Specialized Consultant (Machine & Robot Safety) with WSPS explains that to prevent employees from potentially life-threatening injuries, workplaces must train supervisors and employees, provide machine-specific training, tag locks, and more. With Sodales’ industry specific module for safety lockouts, organizations will be able to manage these components to ensure regulatory requirements are met and actioned. Organizations can acquire the most important benefit of a safety management system, which in this case, is the ability to reduce workplace accidents and incidents. By creating an effective system, organizations can identify potential hazards and risks more quickly and accurately.
Why Sodales?
Key components of safety lockouts include lockout devices, tagout devices, energy isolation, verification, authorized personnel, and training. The purpose of safety lockouts is to prevent accidental start-up of machinery or equipment; the release of stored energy that could cause movement, heat, or other hazards; and injuries to workers who are servicing or repairing equipment. Using Sodales’ various tools for environmental safety, organizations can move out of a reactive cycle, and into a proactive working culture that prioritizes safety practices. This includes features and modules such as hazard and risk assessments, site safety inspections, checklists and audits, environmental incidents reporting and assessments, pre-job safety talks and job site audits.
With Sodales’ integrated incident management module, organizations can streamline incident reporting, investigations, and root cause analysis, with pre-built workflows based on incidents common to safety lockout accidents. Organizations can report incidents, injuries, or near misses; generate worker’s compensation forms for OSHA, WSIB, or other applicable regulatory boards; investigate root cause analysis and corrective actions, and more. With Sodales’ administration console and reporting functionality, users will have the capability to generate reports; track report analytics; and modify, change, or add, new policies and procedures themselves. Regular reviews and updates of lockout procedures are necessary to account for changes in equipment, processes, or regulations, with continuous improvement efforts to help maintain a safe and effective lockout program.
Tracking hazardous energy and air exposure can also be a factor in safety lockouts as frequent release of hazardous energy from machinery, equipment or systems during maintenance, repair, servicing, or cleaning activities often occurs. This includes everything from hazard and risk assessments to site audits and incident management. As you will see below, Sodales offers organizations a comprehensive solution to proactively manage health and safety, which contributes to overall employee satisfaction and retention.
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Implementing effective safety lockout procedures in industrial environments is a fundamental practice to protect the well-being of workers, minimize the risk of accidents related to machinery or hazardous energy sources, and to ensure compliance with safety regulations. Ready to learn how Sodales for Enterprise Health, Safety and Employee Relations can help your organization? Request a demo today to integrate Sodales’ safety lockouts module into your organization’s workflows and get one step closer to creating a safe and positive workplace culture.
