Water is one of the most used substances in many facilities. It is used for things like drinking, cleaning, cooling, fire suppression, and much more. It is also one of the most common ingredients used in making different foods. All this means that most facilities will have one or more different water pipes that travel throughout the area. Learning how to properly label these pipes will help ensure the facility is following regulatory requirements and …
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) A13.1 1996 standard for pipe identification specifies that steam pipes should be identified with a yellow background color with bold black text. This color code is widely recognized and used in many industrial and commercial settings to identify the contents of a pipe as steam. The ANSI A13.1 standard provides a consistent and standardized system for the identification of pipes, valves, and other equipment throughout a facility. This helps …
What would you imagine someone saying if they were told to perform a job hazard analysis? What about a risk assessment? Heaven forbid the company has to have someone come in for a safety audit! Hopefully there aren’t too many disagreeable groans when this news is relayed to employees. In fact, those three safety procedures should be welcomed into the workplace as they have the potential to save lives and eliminate hazards in work environments—whether …
Personal protection equipment, or PPE, is critical for keeping people safe in the workplace. There are many different types of PPE available, each of which is designed to provide a specific type of protection to the person wearing it. While some PPE items is designed to be used once and then disposed of, most of it is able to be used many times as long as it is not damaged. For reusable personal protection equipment, …
In some situations, the factory tends to become unproductive, lacks efficiency and unorganized. This is a time for factory reset where there is a need to start afresh. The workplace may not need drastic changes; however, it is time to implement principal changes that will make a difference and restore productivity within the workplace adapting the 5S factory reset measures. In order to reorganize your work area, the factory needs to have a 5s Factory …
It is important when managing assets, especially when they are customer owned, to be able to clearly identify and report condition of tooling and equipment. In the case of customer-owned tooling, there are often agreements that the business is responsible to maintain their equipment, but in order to do so, a meticulous process of budgeting and reporting is required. The first step in being able to manage tooling and assets is to have a good …
Process Safety Management (PSM) is an analytical tool used to prevent the release of highly hazardous chemicals (HHCs) and improve safety in the workplace. As defined by OSHA and the EPA, HHCs are chemicals that can pose physical or health hazards to workers or the surrounding community. These chemicals are usually toxic, reactive, flammable, and/or explosive. Any company that uses, stores, manufactures, or handles, or moves HHCs will need to follow the PSM requirements as …
Visual communication is essential to occupational safety and this is especially true if the workplace is a notoriously hazardous mine. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) requires that mine operators follow safety guidelines to reduce the risks of safety hazards. Mines should also employ visual safety tools such as safety signs and labels to increase safety awareness and keep operations in the workplace running smoothly. The visuals you post in your mine will depend …
The world-renowned carmaker Toyota began studying supermarkets in the 1940s. Supermarkets have a unique in-store system that uses in-store stocking techniques. Their system always provides for adequate amounts of products on the shelves without having to store excess amounts because customers know they can always return to the store for more. Toyota believed that this same process could be applied to the factory floor. The demand for the product guided the ordering of products and …
Kaizen is a philosophy, a methodology, and a way of mind. There are a number of tools and conceptskaizen utilizes to inspire the continuous mindset. Below are a few of our favorite. Management: In kaizen, management has two functions: maintenance and improvement. Setting standards and keeping them is an important part of kaizen. One of management’s primary roles is to maintain the technological and operating standards that have been put into place. They make sure …