Richard AgamaConsistent and productive workflow are top priorities in factories. However, safety should never take a backseat—improving and promoting workplace safety is essential for any reputable facility. Below, facility owners and supervisors can learn invaluable ways to improve safety protocols in a factory.
Keep Cleaning Consistent
With so many different workers conducting various tasks, factories can quickly become dirty. Set up a consistent cleaning schedule and a list of sanitation protocols pertaining to your specific workplace. Cleanliness is key, but certain protocols will vary between industries. Passersby can hurt themselves if employees allow fluid leaks to collect on the ground, or clutter to gather around workspaces. Slips, trips, and falls are common workplace accidents; enforce a consistently clean work environment to keep these avoidable injuries and more from occurring in your factory.
Provide Workplace Safety Equipment
One of the essentials ways to improve safety protocols in a factory is analyzing your safety equipment. If you lack certain safety equipment or have an insufficient supply, change that immediately. Safety should always be a top priority, especially when heavy machinery is nearby. Personal protective equipment (PPE) like helmets or goggles are materials that businesses must provide to employees who need them. Although specific safety gear varies between roles and work environment, check your inventory to ensure you have the right PPE for your workforce.
If your PPE isn’t up to current industry standards, make upgrades immediately. Furthermore, make sure you have machine guarding in place for relevant areas in the factory. Learning why machine guarding is important is a must for any factory owner or supervisor. Even seemingly harmless machine components can be harmful, but machine guarding can minimize those hazards immensely. Without gear like machine guarding, avoidable accidents can occur with dire results in your workplace.
Encourage Healthy Employee Communication
In this case, “healthy employee communication” refers to situations where workers feel comfortable coming forward with safety concerns, from fluid leaks to improper machine guarding and more. If employers don’t create an environment in which employees feel comfortable talking about safety issues, it can be another way avoidable accidents occur.
If employees are pushing safety concerns under the rug, they’re violating OSHA standards and creating an unsafe workplace—neither are ideal factory working conditions. However, it takes more than telling employees to come forward; business owners have to properly act when workers have safety concerns. This type of synergy is invaluable in any factory and will keep workers safe, comfortable, and productive, all three of which are ideal.
