Employees handling machinery maintenance and servicing must receive lockout tagout training. This is to protect them from injuries that can happen due to an equipment’s unexpected startup or stored energy release. The lockout tagout standard of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires that organizations and facilities adopt and implement the following procedures with regards to equipment:
You can refer to OSHA’s standard for minimum requirements and comprehensive criteria to help you establish a lockout tagout (LOTO) specific to your requirements.
All employees shall be instructed about the requirements and procedures of the LOTO program regardless of their position or assignment.
A lockout tagout authorized employee has been given the responsibility, training, and authority to implement LOTO procedures on particular equipment. He or she must be certified by his or her supervisor on each piece of equipment to demonstrate his or her thorough understanding of the LOTO procedures. His or her responsibilities include:
A lockout tagout affected employee is someone who works with a machine covered by the LOTO standard. He or she is at risk of being harmed by a machine with LOTO.
Although affected employees are not authorized to apply or remove LOTO devices, they must understand the procedures so that they can monitor whether there are violations when it comes to applying the LOTO procedure.
He or she is someone who is working in an area where a particular LOTO procedure is used. Like affected employees, other employees cannot put or remove LOTO devices.
All affected, authorized, and other employees must be trained as required by 1910.332 and 1919.147(c). Other OSHA LOTO training requirements must be customized to a workplace’s needs.
The employer must either develop and provide LOTO training or outsource this from independent LOTO training providers. Either way, the following must be considered:
When it comes to LOTO, the supervisors of the authorized employees must ensure that the employees are certified and that training has taken place. A supervisor’s responsibilities include:
They must also provide the equipment that the authorized employees need for the equipment-specific LOTO training. The authorized employee will be presented with equipment-specific written procedures to verify their understanding of the procedure so that they perform it accordingly.
Outside Personnel
If outside contractors are hired to repair equipment where LOTO is required, the authorized employee will be the one to inform them of the energy control procedures for a particular machine. If needed, he or she will assist the contractors in locking out the machine or equipment.
Group Lockout
If a group of employees is tasked to repair a machine, each employee will put his or her personal tag or lock on the group lockout device as soon as he or she begins to work. He or she will remove this device once the work on the machine has been completed.
On the other hand, if there is more than one authorized employee required to lock or tag out a machine, there should be a primary authorized employee to:
They are given LOTO training so that they are aware of the restrictions and can identify locks and tags. Here, they will be instructed never to reenergize or restart a locked-out or tagged-out machine. They will also be retrained if there is a change in OSHA regulation or their employer’s guidelines. This retraining can be done through awareness campaigns.
Retraining is required if there is:
How knowledgeable are your employees with regards to the existing LOTO procedures in your workplace? You can use the followingchecklist for your reference:
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Shop: ___________________________
Location: _______________________
Equipment: ____________________
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