How to Get Started with Machine Safety (in FOUR Easy Steps)

STEP ONE: Don't Skip the Paperwork!

The first step to any machine safety process is to dig up the documentation you have on your machinery and its safety design and components. The goal here is to identify whether you have any documentation or technical gaps with your machinery. Here's what you're looking to assemble:

• Accident and close-call reports that apply to the machinery. 
• Operating instructions and maintenance requirements for your machinery.
• Machine Hazard  Identification Reports you have on file. These could have been conducted by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), a vendor, Environment, Health and Safety (EHS), or a safety consultant. 
• Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) and HECP Procedures.
• OEM documentation about your machinery.
• Management of change records.
• Technical documentation for machine safety devices. These documents should describe the safety-rated devices and identify the hazardous operations they apply to.
• All safe distance calculations for any presence-sensing machine safety devices. This is required for safety light curtains, area scanners, safety mats, and other presence-sensing safety devices. (If you can't find this, you may be able to find instructions on the safety device manufacturer's website).
• Safety control system validation documentation for the safety devices installed on your machinery.

Collecting this data may take a few days to complete, and there's a good chance you might not be able to find everything. But don't give up, and don't try this alone! Move on to the next step for more help.

STEP TWO:  Form a Team of In-House Machine Safety Stakeholders

Teamwork makes the dream work! Assembling a team of internal stakeholders is key to your machine safety success. This is especially helpful if you can't find all of the documentation outlined in step one - perhaps a team member can provide this documentation. Members of this team will vary for each organization, but here's a list of common machine safety stakeholders. 

• Operations
• Engineering
• Maintenance
• EHS
• Automation / Instrumentation 
• Quality
  
  
  

  These departments all need to know about future machine safety improvements and may help provide documentation and information on any past machine safety improvements.

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STEP THREE: Identify Red Flags & Missing Info

Have your team analyze your assembled documentation and compare it to your actual machine installation. Is there anything missing? Are there gaps in documentation, missing or inoperable machine safety devices? Or are you finding a machine hazard that needs to be mitigated? If so, take note, and remember to implement LOTO as needed when conducting your review to look out for any of these additional red flags: 

• Machine hazard identification reports should be available and include a PLr (Performance level requirement) for each safety control solution. If either of these is missing, that's a red flag.
  
• Consult the minimum-safe-distance-calculations to ensure presence-sensing machine safety devices are installed at the correct distance away from the hazard. If you can't ensure this, that's a red flag.
  
• When reviewing your safety devices, are they installed the way they're specified in their technical files? If not, that's a red flag.
  
• Have machine or component modifications or changes been properly reviewed by your management of change documentation? If not, that's a red flag.
  
• Are the selection of safety control devices, including the method of configuration and wiring consistent with your machine safety validation documents? If not, that's a red flag.