Maintenance Erecting/Dismantling Scaffolding
Question here - I have recently stopped maintenance personnel desiring to start erecting scaffolding themselves - in house - instead of hiring a contractor. We have very strict company construction standards, and no established program for maintenance personnel to do this activity.
They have sent one person to a training in Texas for a week and apparently he’s trained a few other folks in their spare time for approximately 4 undocumented hours each.
We have very strong scaffolding companies as resident contractors here with very strong safety policies. So we are not lacking skilled labor/contractors.
I have one colleague advocating heavily on their behalf.
Has anyone else experienced this at their plant? Or do the majority contract this need out?
Again, for obvious training, experience, liability, and planning reasons I am against this and believe they are wanting to put cost above safety.
Comments (4)
What kind of scaffolding?
I have been in manufacturing management for almost 50 years! Back in the 70s and 80s I saw scaffolding very occasionally, usually when painting large structures and always by contractors. I cannot remember ever seeing our people using it! I know Drew and I discussed this topic recently, but I just do not recall my people using it. Even in the my foundry days, with very high ceilings, in the 70s and 80s we used boom man lifts and scissors lifts when we had to go up! Just were much more convenient than building scaffolding. I saw it in Maintenance storage since 1990, but we never ever used it!
I guess with options in 2024 like ladders, scissors lifts and boom lifts, why would anyone want to use scaffolding in a manufacturing setting? Our large machines have ladders, stairs, and platforms built on them.