Precast Inc. - July/August 2008 - (Page 40) S A F E T Y & H E A LT H 5S + 1 = Safety for Precasters Let go of the clutter! By Sam Lines and Chuck Overbay B eing safety conscious at the plant is a lot like it is at home. Have you ever watched the TV program called “Clean Sweep”? It is devoted to removing the clutter in your home. At the beginning of the program, the rooms are in utter disarray. Do people really live like this? The spouses argue about keeping the items. “Let go of the clutter and free your lives of the stress,” urges the host. In the end, the room turns out great, and the couple is pleased with the results. Living with organization in our lives makes sense. Unnecessary things get in our way. We spend hours looking for something to perform a task that should take only a minute or two. This clutter at home is a contributing factor to accidents in the home – one of which is falls. According to Safe Kids USA, falls are a leading cause of death in household accidents involving children under 14 years of age. And, according to the Bureau of Labor statistics, fatalities in the workplace caused by falls are second only to motor vehicle accidents. Additionally, the rate of fall fatalities at work is up 17 percent in the past 10 years. Eliminating clutter is one way to reduce this risk, and it also benefits plant productivity. Mike Stiger of Stiger Precast in Nevada, Ohio, understands the need for organization. He has tools arranged on a pegboard with an outline of the tool in the background. He also has racks of precut reinforcing steel labeled for each of his three most widely used lengths. “I don’t want to spend 30 minutes looking for a tool to do a five-minute job,” says Stiger of his wellorganized shop. Being organized has helped the company be more productive, and it also helps to reduce accidents. The lean manufacturing world has a tool called 5S that is used to organize the workplace. The 5 S’s are sort, set in order, shine, standardize and sustain. Many companies add safety to this list and refer to it as 5S+1. Applying the first five elements of 5S will typically result in improved safety. The first S in 5S+1, sort, involves going through all of the items in the work area and eliminating anything that is not needed. Items sorted are either red-tagged and removed, returned to storage, sold or thrown away. What remains should be only what is needed to perform a task. Extra tools, excessive quantities of inserts, nuts and bolts, and other unnecessary items make it more difficult to work and maneuver throughout the work area. JULY/AUGUST 2008 | PRECAST INC. Safety is a concern with sorting, because clutter leads to cramped spaces and floors used for storage instead of walking and working surfaces. Too many bolts may cause a few to drop to the floor, and then as an employee walks by, he steps on a bolt and sprains his ankle. Now the employee is in pain and may be off work for a few days. Clutter on the floor can lead to a trip hazard. Unnecessary liquids can spill, leading to a slip and fall incident. These are all causes of accidents that are easily preventable, and it doesn’t require a huge investment to remove unnecessary clutter. Once you know what is needed and what is not, the next step in the process is to set things in order. A safe plant is an orderly plant. Have a place for everything, and put everything in its place. A concrete rake has a designated home, for example. When the employee is finished using it, he should know that he is expected to return it to this location. It is easy to just leave this rake lying around where it was used last. This can easily lead to an injury. Leaving chemicals around the plant, especially paints and solvents, can create a flammable material hazard. Also, failing to comply with housekeeping rules may lead to an OSHA citation. The next step is to really get the plant cleaned and make it shine. People work better in an environment that feels comfortable. Most employees will spend more than one-third of their lifetimes inside the workplace. This is a concept that Spoerr Precast in Sandusky, Ohio, knows well. The plant is organized to make tools, hardware and equipment easy to find. In addition, the tools, equipment and forming are all maintained and shined on a regular basis. It may seem like a waste of time and resources to clean the shop when it’s just going to get dirty tomorrow. But the reality is that maintaining a clean work area is one way to find the root cause of problems. An oil-soaked floor can be cleaned with some oil dry, but the real problem is that there is an oil leak. Too many times we try to fix the symptom (an oil-soaked floor), and we forget to fix the problem (a leaky hydraulic line). The fourth step in this process is to standardize so that the sort, set and shine become normal operating practice. Procedures are usually developed to document the standards for the way that the area is to be organized. A checklist is developed to coincide with the process sheet, and someone should audit the process weekly. 40
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