Verbal Instruction – “In Line” Machine Guarding
I recall one case at a large company when Verbal Instruction was given to the maintenance department to fit a section of guarding to an “In Line” manufacturing process.
The production people needed to access a machine which was part of an “In Line” process – for routine adjustment during “set up” – this was done by “inching” and did not present a safety issue as there were well documented and well understood procedures in place.
However there were exposed moving parts when the machine was in production and it was deemed to be a safety issue.
A Verbal Instruction was given to the maintenance department to fit a guard and a fixed guard was fabricated and installed over a weekend, when the line was not running.
Verbal Instruction for “In Line” machine guarding without consultation with the machine operators can lead to many problems
The production people then found that they could not get access to the machine and ripped out the guard so that they could gain access and of course they left it removed and in a fairly damaged state.
The guard was then repaired and welded on at the next scheduled outage – and again it was ripped out. The maintenance people then decided that it was a waste of their time and just left it.
It was ignored for a long time until another Safety Audit again identified the problem of moving parts and deemed that a guard was required.
However – This time the job was given to the Engineers – Consultation with the production people followed and the result was that an effective hinged guard with suitable interlocks was designed, fabricated and installed.
Cross reference with Engineering Drawings For Minor Works
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