The following is a story about a mining operation. It is in all rights and intentions a fictional one, but the subject matter addressed in this story was taken from thirty five years experience in the mining industry. There was a mining operation that had good production, low cost and once in a while they would have a lost time accident. When they had a lost time accident the mine manager would call...

A toothpaste factory had a problem: they sometimes shipped empty boxes, without the tube inside. This was due to the way the production line was set up, and people with experience in designing production lines will tell you how difficult it is to have everything happen with timings so precise that every single unit coming out of it is perfect 100% of the time. Small variations in the environment (which...

RUNNING RIGHT YOU GET THE LEVEL OF SAFETY YOU DEMONSTRATE YOU WANT!  AKA…LEAD BY EXAMPLE…WALK THE TALK…PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH PRINCIPLES ABOUT THE LAW OF THE PICTURE (JOHN C.  MAXWELL 21 LAWS OF LEADERSHIP)   MOST PEOPLE ARE VISUAL LEARNERS, NOT VERBAL LEARNERS. Educators tell us that 89 percent of learning is visual. Most people need to see an example or a model before they really...

YESTERDAY IS PAST…CANNOT CHANGE ANYTHING THAT WE DID TOMORROW HAS NOT ARRIVED…    SO… JUST FOR TODAY…   …Just for today, I will choose and display right attitudes. …Just for today, I will determine and act on important priorities. …Just for today, I will know and follow healthy guidelines. …Just for today, I will communicate with and care for my family. …Just for today, I will practice...

Consider this story: A four-person committee was appointed; it consisted of Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, Nobody.  An important job came up and the committee agreed that Everybody should be asked to do it.  Everybody, however, was sure that Somebody would do it, and they all knew that Anybody could do it.  Nobody did it. Somebody got angry because it was Everybody’s job, and Everybody...

A person’s values serve as an internal map that guides behavior. Try giving a map to a person and asking him to find his way around the jungle.  Without bearings or a compass, he will never be able to do it. The bearings and compass in this sense is a person’s moral compass—his values.  Wanting to do the right thing is just the start of the journey. Good intentions need to be translated into...

Safety is largely about actions.  But it’s also about attitude. We can observe actions objectively. But it’s harder to see into employees’ heads and hearts and examine their attitude toward workplace safety.  Every employee must be dead serious about safety—or they could end up dead. As well as taking job safety seriously, a positive attitude is reflected by other factors,...

Most of us like to get our work done with the least amount of effort, and as quickly as possible. We all want to get the most work out of the energy we use on the job.  This is good because it often results in discovering newer and more efficient ways of getting our job done.  This energy-saving attitude can also be bad if we make a wrong decision and take dangerous shortcuts. All of us at...

I resolve… to accept responsibility for my safety and to help others around me do the same. Take time to examine your attitude about safety.  Do you recognize that we must take responsibility for our own safety or are you one of those who think that “stuff just happens?”  “You have a lot of control over what happens to you”  I resolve… to take time for safety every day. Have you ever...

DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted project which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it. WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light . Also...

 

Notice the clever way operators bypassed this interlock.  Just remove the key, replace the screws and insert the key into the home base.  Unless someone is looking close, this interlock looks like it is in place and functioning.  I moved the key away from the screws for the photo, but until I moved it, everything looked proper. … HomeRead More »