Workplace safety cannot be governed by rules. No matter how comprehensive or well thought out your safety rules and regulations are, rules can’t create safe working conditions. Only people can maintain a safe workplace. All the safety rules in the world won’t stop accidents if everyone isn’t focused on safety.
When employees are truly committed to and focused on workplace safety, remarkable results can be achieved. The evidence is overwhelming. Most organizations that design and implement a comprehensive plant safety culture program see workplace accidents drop by 90 percent or more, and in some cases, such as Kimberly-Clark, large manufacturing plants have gone a year or longer without a single significant incident.
Creating a truly safe workplace requires getting everybody on board—from the senior execs who approve the capital expenditures for the latest, safest equipment to the janitorial staff who clean the chemical storage tanks. Safety experts emphasize the best way to create a plant safety culture is not only to make sure everyone is involved but also to reward employees in a tangible, visible way for promoting safety.
Safe Equipment and Safety Training
Equipment is essential for workplace safety. The first step in creating a safe workplace is making sure that all of the equipment in a plant, including every turbine, pump, tank, or gauge, is the right equipment for the job. Many equipment failures in refineries and manufacturing plants can be related to the use of out-of-specification equipment.
The only way to be completely sure you have the most up-to-date and safest equipment throughout your facility is to undertake a full equipment and instrument audit. Unfortunately, few of you have the spare manpower to conduct a full facility audit, and that is where WIKA’s Full Audit Service Team can help.
The professionals on WIKA’s FAST team works closely with your engineers and maintenance staff to audit all of the equipment in your facility.
WIKA’s FAST audit process doesn’t stop with just identifying problem areas such as the use of gauges or other instrumentation; FAST engineers can also provide training to help your team identify failure and prevent risks to plant safety. Contact FAST for more information.