The Supervisors Role in Safety Inspections

What involvement should the FLS have with safety inspections Ideally, the FLS should be closely involved with safety inspections. The FLS needs to work closely with team members in the area to discuss their safety concerns and include those on the inspection list. Inspection lists should be specifically tuned for conditions in a particular department. If machines are part of the department, they should be included in the inspections. Besides getting input from machine operators, the FLS should get input from a variety of other departments, including maintenance, engineering, QA, and housekeeping. 

At times it may be best to involve other issues for teaming and other big picture purposes. Again, balance is the key. A judgment needs to be made to determine which items should be included and which should not, or if it makes sense to add another QA checklist or other checklist. Successful safety programs do exist where one inspection was performed that considered a variety of different departmental agendas. It is difficult to say what is needed in any particular situation. 

Recently, I was personally involved with a safety reporting system that worked fantastically. Incidents were classified in three groups, and a preliminary report filing period and distribution were set in stone. The supervisors were trained in the procedures. Management dealt quickly with situations where any wavering in the proper procedure was noted. This procedure for incident reporting worked so well that management decided to expand the procedure for a select number of non-safety-related items. 

Upper management wanted to ensure that all key people who needed to be informed of certain situations received adequate and prompt notice. The two areas that were added were notices of environmental exceedances or noncompliance and any warrants served. These two parameters were given a numerical classification of an incident and added to the form. Involved parties were retrained in the inclusion of the two new additions on the incident form. 

Maintenance issues are sometimes considered to be more closely related to safety than QA. Getting input from the maintenance department and indications where safety-related problems were found can help the plan eliminate future occurrences. There probably are some items to check that can warn us that something is getting out of whack. Inspecting for these signs is probably prudent. It could mean that when things are finally out of whack, an accident or close call may be in the offing. 

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