Both OSHA PRCS standards define and quantify a Hazardous Atmosphere in terms of combustible dust using the distance one can see through the dust cloud… Hazardous atmosphere means an atmosphere that may expose employees to the risk of death, incapacitation, impairment of ability to self-rescue (that is, escape unaided from a permit space), injury, or…...
VW chose Tennessee for its new assembly plant because it is a “right to work” state. The union campaigns lost in 2014 and 2019, but last week, it won big (2,628 for and 985 opposed), at least based on the NLRB count so far. A few votes are being challenged, but nothing near the number…...
Some raw materials are sensitive to humidity; this valve sticks and is more demanding than its supposedly similar neighbor; that pump has broken down; this operation sometimes occurs at night and sometimes during the day, sometimes when it’s hot, other times when it’s cold, sometimes our co-worker is tall, sometimes he is short, we may…...
The story behind this picture is said to be a 19-year-old granddaughter’s attempt at designing for her grandfather’s dementia. Human Factors Engineering (HFE)!!! Making human factors matter by REDUCING the opportunity for error. It really can be this simple! Pic Credit: Amy Dalton… Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership...
If you have ever attended one of my SMS presentations or training courses, you know I am a huge Edward Demming fan. I started my career during the ISO 9001 era, which many call the “Quality Era.” Do you remember Ford’s slogan in the 1990s? “Quality is #1,” and the ISO quality movement was considerably…...
The following incident is a precautionary example of the potential hazards of improperly depressurizing piping to remove a hydrate. During production operations, a control room operator observed a decrease in gas lift pressure supplied through a pipeline to a remote well location. The control room operator notified the onboard platform operators of the pressure drop…...
One of the finest men I ever worked for, Jim Krumholz, taught me this trick in 1999! Manager MUST attend the “safety training” their employees attend! Even if this manager would never participate in an entry into PRCS, perform HW, or even participate in a lockout, they need to understand the expectations of their team…...
On January 13, 2022, workers inside the company’s fabrication shop performed a “wet test” on a newly built tank truck to check for leakage. This entailed running diesel test fuel through different tank compartments and other truck components. This was a routine operation at the workplace. Workers knew never to use gasoline, and the company…...
I have written several articles on the topic of when we store our flammable liquids BELOW their flash points with the aid of refrigeration and how that makes our “refrigeration/chiller” a critical utility if we wish to take credit for storing the flammable below its FP. I have also discussed processing a Class IIIB/Cat 4…...
Managing our LOTO program requires considerable resources, and it requires a team approach! However, we see many failed attempts to control hazards through a facility’s LOTO program. One of the most common failures is how “authorized employees” are defined in terms of the skills they are trained on. Which Rabbit Hole you choose to go…...
I put this image together for a friend struggling to demonstrate to their management that we can not discuss LOTO until Machine Guarding is in place. These two topics go hand in hand and trust me; if there are guarding issues, those hazards will be compounded when we attempt to frame up the LOTO program…....
An Ohio subsidiary of one of the world’s largest automotive suppliers could have prevented a 26-year-old employee in Franklin from being fatally crushed in October 2023 if the company had provided proper machine guarding. OSHA responded after being informed of the incident and learned the worker, on the job for about a year, was placing…...
