Maintenance Technology September 2016 - 20

SAFETY STRATEGIES Commit to SAFETY An injury-free workplace should be ingrained in all daily functions and fully supported at all levels of the company. Al Poling, CMRP, RAM Analytics LLC an example for this responsibility; they don't delegate it. MAINTENANCE WORKERS ARE EXPOSED to Remember that workers emulate their leaders. Accordcountless hazards every day. Historically, injuries were ingly, leaders must be visibly committed to injury-free considered inevitable, a result of risk associated with certain performance. Any weak link, either a salaried or hourly types of work. Many believed that injuries were a natural person, will jeopardize the entire effort. Individuals who fail consequence of the industries in which we chose to work to comply must be dealt with swiftly and effectively. More to (in my case, chemicals, petrochemicals, and refining). It the point, safety deviations, i.e., behavioral wasn't until I lost a coworker that I not only non-compliance, aren't to be tolerated- recognized that injuries could be prevented, anywhere-in an operation. but committed myself to the concept of Committing Safety leadership begins with a clearly injury-free performance. articulated vision: injury-free performance. As with the overwhelming percentage to injury-free This vision must be communicated, continuof workplace deaths, my coworker had performance calls ally reinforced, and supported by expectaviolated critical safety protocols. While tions that align with the desired result. there's no antidote for poor judgment and, for leadership, Consider the following aspects of a complete therefore, no guarantee that injuries will safety program. be prevented, adopting the proven mainsomething that Safety can't be bought. Resist the tenance-safety best practices outlined here often seems to be temptation to buy the latest off-the-shelf will reduce risk and lower the probability of safety program or methodology. Also avoid such incidents. lacking when it the flavor du jour practice of taking different trendy approaches to safety and hoping one Importance of leadership comes to safety. or more catches on. Hope is not a strategy. Achieving injury-free performance requires Workers will see through these schemes and, exploiting every opportunity to reduce consequently, won't take safety seriously. risk and, thereby, avoid injuries. Committing to that type of Leaders, however, must be willing to allocate resources, performance, though, calls for leadership, something that i.e., auditors, technicians, and supervisors, to drive safety often seems to be lacking when it comes to safety. improvement. Although all workers can have a profound To reach world-class levels of safety performance in a effect on safety, they must be empowered, as well as encourplant or facility, there must be a heartfelt belief throughout aged, to intervene if they perceive unacceptable risks. the operation that injuries are preventable. Although some People must be held accountable. Safety goals and objecindividuals may claim to have no control over it, success-or tives begin at the top and provide a means to hold people failure-isn't a matter of happenstance. Safety really is accountable. To be effective, objectives must be specific everybody's responsibility. Leaders, however, personally set 20 | MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY SEPTEMBER 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Maintenance Technology September 2016