Machine safety checklists

Machine safety checklists can be used to identify potential and actual hazards in the workplace. Checklists provide a baseline for hazard identification and action planning that m be required to correct a hazard. 

Examples of machine safety checklists are available from various sources, such as those on internet sites. However, it is important to remeniber that checklist items will vary in their requirements depending upon the type of industry and workplace in which they will be applied. 

Connection between nodes is a link. Your connection to other people is a link. For example, when you talk to another person you link with them. When you as part of the leadership team have a face-to-face discussion, hold a daily preshift review, a weekly or monthly meeting, area walk-throughs, and/or review the equipment/machine-specific checklist with your employees, you are directly linked with your employee(s). Refer to Chapter 11, Developing an Activity-Based Safety System. Through your links, your message is directly communicated to the employees in each of these activities. Where you are not directly connected is where information may not be flowing. In addition, the employees you are linked with are in turn linked to other employees. 

Discuss the implementation of a machine/equipment-specific safety checklist. 

James noted how the machine-specific checklist can evolve over time. A load turner is used to turn a six-foot stack of paper and is designed with a 300-pound plate used to clamp the stack in place. An incident occurred in a plant where, while in a raised position, bolts broke and caused this heavy plate to fall. A machine/ equipment checklist was put in place and included checking for missing or broken bolts. The checklist was developed through employee discussions, and uncovered a number of other safety concerns and unknown hazards that has never been addressed and were added to the checklist. 

An effective safety culture reduces the acceptance of unnecessary risk. The machine/equipment checklist provides an immediate discussion and conduit for correction. 

Reviewing machine/equipment-specific safety checklists. 

Current policies, procedures, programs, job hazard analyses, inspechon reports (machine/equipment checklist, property/facility specihc), safety meehngs, and safety committee meehngs, etc. 

Conduct at random, five reviews of machine/equipment-specific safety checklists. 

The DOE led to questions on why the safety message was not being retained by employees. Different concepts were tested for communicating the desired safe behavior. It was found that the best actions that improved information retention included verbal discussion and pictures with text coupled with preshift reviews, supervisor/employee one-on-one discussions to verily by demonstration that information was retained, and use of a machine/equipment-specific checklist. Supervisors were also asked to describe the at-risk behaviors they wanted to change. It was found that when risk identification was aimed at carefully selected areas, it brought into view peripheral issues of high risk that must be addressed. 

The next component of ABSS is a machine/equipment-specific checklist. This is a checklist that is used to focus on specific identified safety issues for each piece of machinery and/or equipment in the organization. This checklist is developed and updated by the employees and supervisor who works with and around the specific equipment with the input from the safety staff. The key to this list is not to make it overly detailed. We suggest that no more than 15 of the most important items are listed on this checklist, which may cover specific inherent hazards of a machine or equipment. Refer to Appendix P, Operator General Observations and Machine/ Equipment-Specific Daily Inspection Checklist . For an overview, refer to Figure 11.2, Sample General Observations and Machine/Iiquipment-Specific Daily Inspection Checklist . 

In reviewing the checklist as described above, if there is a safety issue identified, an agreement must be reached between the employee and the supervisor as to the nature and type of the hazard and the potential risk before the equipment can be put into operation. Refer to Appendix P, Sample Machine/Equipment-Specific Checklist . 

The next component of ABSS is a machine/equipment-specific checklist. This checklist is used to focus on specific, identified safety-related issues for each piece of machinery and/or equipment in the organization. It is developed and updated by employees and the leadership team (Figure 11.9) (Appendix L). 

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