Making Sure Vehicles, Machinery and Equipment is Safe is Harder Than it Looks!
As you go about your day, it’s easy to see if a worker is not wearing their PPE, or if someone is leaning that A-frame ladder up against a wall! And, as a safety professional or supervisor, as you see these things, you will no doubt have a brief safety conversation with the person to correct it and get on with your day… It’s a cornerstone of safety management, and actually some leaders will also stop and reward people who are doing the right thing – great in building culture! The best part is that it doesn’t really take away from an otherwise busy day.
But What About the Machinery and Equipment?
Whether it’s Forklifts, Aerial Lifts, Carts or Machines, they of course represent a significant safety risk, but how do you know they are all safety to use?
Most organizations give operators a pre-shift checklist to complete, either on paper or on an app. We do it to keep everyone safe as well as meet regulatory standards. But do those inspections actually happen every time? Most say no, and part of the reason is that people in supervisory roles just don’t have enough time in the day to go looking for pieces of paper or run reports to figure out who has and hasn’t done an inspection. They’d also need to find the time to locate the operator who’s not done an inspection, have a safety conversation, and resolve the issue. We are all just too busy.
Even if we Had the Time, is That the Right Approach?
We hear the term ‘Safety Culture’ a lot! If culture is about empowering people to make the decision to be safe for themselves, without the need for supervisors to be the ‘safety police’, then the implied approach above would surely work against this. We need to find a way to engage the operator in doing their safety inspection, and doing it properly, without the intervention of a supervisor.
That’s a Big Ask, How is it Possible?
Well, these ‘real life’ challenges, as well as the need to prove compliance through record keeping, and mitigate risks as viewed by your insurers (!), are some of the reasons SG World USA’s patented inspection checklist solution exists. It is America’s Best Safety Checklist Solution and you can check it out here: https://www.sgworldusa.com/collections/inspection-checklist-patented-solution or reach out to office@sgworldusa.com to chat about your specific challenge in vehicle, equipment or machinery inspections, and how SG World USA can help you solve it.
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