Manufacturing safety goes right to the bottom line
When it comes to safety in manufacturing, some companies take a traditional approach: do no more than finding out what the Occupational Safety and Health Administration guidelines are and try to meet them, according to a Plant Engineering October 2006 article. Spending on safety often means little more than some new machine guards or a few extra stripes on the floor leading to emergency exits. Safety expenditures are an after-thought, and why not? If there are no injuries, OSHA won’t come calling. If there is a major injury, insurance covers the employee costs, and any OSHA fines are likely less expensive than the safety equipment it would require to fix the problem.
To such companies, implementing safety devices or practices is just an additional burden– an additional expense that takes away from their bottom line. Today, safety attitudes and practices are changing. Manufacturers realize that having a safe working environment is beneficial – in many ways. Once considered a barrier to profits, safety today is seen as one more way to add value to a manufacturing process and improve productivity and profitability.
Safety should be integrated into systems, culture, and processes of any plant. Click here to read more recommendations on this topic from Control Engineering ’s sister publication, Plant Engineering . Both are part of Reed Business Information.
For more from Control Engineering , read:
“Ensuring a Safe, Secure HMI” and
“Assess Risk”
Edited by Mark T. Hoske , Control Engineering editor in chief
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