Anyone who has played sports or even just attended a team sporting event has heard or seen the famous saying:
There is no “I” in Team!
In our world of Lockout/Tagout (LOTO), nothing could be farther from the truth! There is not an act in occupational safety and health that is more self-serving and selfish than LOTO. Even in Group LOTO situations, LOTO is ALL about EACH WORKER having EXCLUSIVE CONTROL over 100% of the energy isolation devices protecting them. But here we are in the Year 2020 and already I have found workplaces that are making the critical error in assuming that only the “machine must be locked out” vs. “EACH WORKER having EXCLUSIVE CONTROL over 100% of the energy isolation devices protecting them”. This is a serious misunderstanding among our profession as the SAFTENG team has had numerous debates with safety professionals about the APPLICATION and IMPLEMENTATION of LOTO in their workplaces. I am shocked when a “safety professional” does not understand this most fundamental need in LOTO. In our 2020 Safety! presentation my good friend and safety rock Jonathan Zimmerman and I will be presenting “The Top 10 Myths and Misconceptions of LOTO” (Session # 5039) and guess what #1 will be?
LOTO is ALL about EACH WORKER having EXCLUSIVE CONTROL over 100% of the energy isolation devices protecting them!
And already, I can hear the grumblings in the crowd. How our profession has allowed this horrible LOTO myth to survive this long is puzzling.
We should NEVER ask or accept anyone asking: “Is the machine locked out?”. Rather, we should all be asking: