Lockout and Machine Guarding Go Together Like "Soup and Sandwich"
The email I just received from the OSHA ATO says, “49% of all Machine Guarding Injuries result in Amputation.” But my 50 years of Manufacturing Management reflects something else. I have been involved with all too many Amputations, more than most. In my experience, ALL Amputations has had as a cause one or both of two causes; First, failure to Lockout, and Second, Failure of Machine Guarding!”
I also strongly believe the following about Machine Guarding:
1. I cannot adequately train your in MG without also training you in Lockout. They go together like “Soup and Sandwich.” You cannot have one without the other.
2. What you must guard on machines is not that hard, if you have a practiced eye, for machine hazards. However, how you guard is often difficult and expensive.
3. The next may be controversial. But any amputation usually means you have a failure of your Lockout and/or Machine Guarding Policy and Processes. This means the real root cause usually falls upon management. It will take a much longer article for me to explain.
I have posted this before, but below is a link to beef up that “practiced eye” in #2. The classes are free and two or four hours. I highly recommend one of the four-hour classes. You will take the classes virtually and not even have to leave your office. I also you can receive recert credits if you want them, I even used them for my recert of my PHR (SHRM – Human Resources).
https://cpeonline.niu.edu/course/index.php?categoryid=25
Comments (3)
Good points, Fitz! I've witnessed my fair share of amputations, as well. Probably one of the worst was there was a new, 18 y/o worker at a Kingsford charcoal facility that had his arm amputated from the elbow down because he was using a cutting torch to cut an access plate on an auger housing, didn't lock it out, and when he made the final cut on the access plate, it fell down and his initial instinct was to try to grab it, ultimately causing the amputation.
Bacardi Rum has a good, informative video on a fatality they had back 5 or 10 years ago where a new employee on his very first day of any job he ever had was crushed by a palletizer. He was underneath it cleaning up a mess from boxes falling off, but he didn't lock it out and someone came up behind him, wondered why it turned off, turned it on and crushed him because they didn't know it was out there.
I agree with you that most of the amputations, at least from my experience, are from LOTO violations rather than machine guarding. I, unfortunately, had to investigate a fatality at one of my facilities on my very first week there when a guy was decapitated from a palletizer arm because he failed to take gravity into consideration. Ultimately, the 600 lb. palletizer table fell down and it was not a fun thing to investigate by any means.
Appreciate you posting all of these free trainings! Thank you, sir!
Completely agree that these situations are first a failure of LOTO. I literally just provided this perspective on a global machine guarding improvement group for my current employer. There was so much discussion on alleged machine guarding deficiencies (and there were some), but most of the injuries were due to machine intervention where it was necessary to bypass guarding. We certainly need to ensure guarding is in place. However, there are far too many instances of machine interventions where LOTO needs to be applied, but team members are allowed to work otherwise.
Yep agree with you for the most part.
We had a freak fingertip amputation (not even all the way to the fingernail, but a chunk of skin still classifies as it) at my last facility at a bench press. It was the guard/material securer itself that pinched off the tip of a finger rather than the bench’s die. The worker’s hand slipped and went right underneath the guard as it was slowly coming down. 😬 We confirmed with the manufacturer that it was indeed considered a guard for the die. That was a bizarre one.