In 2017, over 5000 people died while working. The manufacturing industry, given its exposure to dangerous machines, chemicals and other hazards, was among the top contributors to that number.
If you run a manufacturing plant, it’s not a matter of if one of your employees will get injured. It’s a matter of when.
To reduce the frequency of employee injuries and to eliminate the chances of death as a result of injuries, it’s important that safety is always at the forefront of everything that your company does.
Below, we share safety practices that you should implement into your workflow immediately to keep your team secure and your liability down.
1. Do Daily Safety Inspections
Every day presents new risks to your employees. Oftentimes, eliminating these risks is as simple as doing a morning factory walk around to ensure that everything is in order.
For example, was an equipment abnormality reported to you at the end of yesterday’s workday? Take the morning to make sure that the machine in question is checked out and cleared for use.
Were all chemicals properly stored and organized after work? If you notice things out of place, set abnormalities right and have a discussion with responsible parties.
2. Make Safety a Managerial Priority
If you’re running a large factory, you can’t be privy to all safety practices that are being adhered to across all of your departments. Managers need to be able to step up and fill in those gaps.
During your weekly meetings with managers, talk to them about their safety observations and solicit feedback on how you can further insulate your employees from harm.
By leading off high-level meetings with the topic of safety, you’ll constantly impress on your managerial team how important safety assurance is to their job.
3. Safety Training is a Must
Making equipment training, behavioral training and chemicals like hydrogen sulfide training standard is a must in all manufacturing settings.
New employees should be exposed to professionally produced and accredited safety training materials prior to getting out on your factory floor. Existing employees should be brought up to speed on safety procedures on an annual basis.
4. Create a Safety Culture
No matter how many safety practices you throw at your team or trainings you conduct, eventually, they’ll get complacent.
To reduce safety complacency, make adherence to safety part of your corporate culture.
You can do that by rewarding safety evangelists with compensation upgrades and by having signs up that celebrate the number of days that it’s been since your company’s last accident.
5. Have a Zero Tolerance Policy for Safety Offenders
If you have members of your team that are intentionally reckless in your factory, let them go.
While mistakes happen, some mistakes are less of a bi-product of confusion and more of a bi-product of negligence. Keeping negligent people on your team will open your company up to massive liabilities that far outweigh the value of a single employee’s contributions.
Wrapping Up Crucial Safety Practices in Manufacturing Settings
Safety practices are a must in all workplaces. This goes double for workplaces like manufacturing plants where risks are much higher than what you’d find in other labor sectors.
We compel you to institute the tips that we’ve laid out to insulate yourself from liability and your employees from harm.
If you find that you need additional insight on workplace safety or tips on how to run your business effectively, we suggest reading more of the content that we upload to our blog, daily!
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