Safety & Productivity
Safety and productivity are 2 sides of the same coin but it costs money to add safety systems to an otherwise bare piece of equipment. So how can this be?
To answer this question to an age old argument we must consider the following.
It is Human Activity that drives Operational Efficiency. Many organizations have changed the layout of their plants to take advantage of a better process flow so that Human Energy Requirements and Waste of any kind are reduced.
Safety Compliance Strategies embody those exact same principles. Human Error and the associated Inefficiency and Waste can be minimized through Safety Systems solutions.
For Example : Can you imagine 2 machines that are exactly the same, except that one machine is unguarded and open, while the other is well guarded with a solution that was developed with the collective knowledge of 100 years of operation and engineering experience. (In other words it’s done right).
The open machine can be run, setup and adjusted Many Different Ways, Any Time during the run. Whereas, the guarded machine can only be run, setup and adjusted one way, only at set-up. Which machine is going to produce the most consistent product? Which machine will produce the Higher Quality Product?
Which machine will last longer? (Car rental agencies, in North America, will not rent manual transmissions because the different use patterns will destroy the transmission).
Where is there more likely to be injury?
Scrap, Equipment Downtime, Damage and Personal Injury are directly related to the amount of Procedural Mistakes and Variability.
In several large studies, the productivity achieved from enhanced machine guarding alone, increased employee productivity by 25% over a 5-year study and associated indirect operating costs were reduced by 20%. Please see L – M report (Lockheed-Martin Case Study pdf).
It has even been proven that the human mind will alter work in a way that increases its chance of survival. In other words, in an environment where we perceive risk, we work more slowly and cautiously. When we feel safe we work faster, we are more at ease and we are more efficient.
This kind of Hidden Waste can make the difference between a successful business and business closure or relocation. Please call or email us to see how SAFE Engineering can help you minimize process waste, your business risk and make your facility more safety compliant.