Achieving 100% Safety Compliance is Easier than You Think!
Safety Compliance that is Fully Automatic
One thing that is common among all companies, regardless of industry, that operate material handling equipment is the requirement by law to provide the safest operating environment for its employees. That also includes the vehicles that operate within the business. Whether it is OSHA for the United States or provincial ministry for Canada businesses must provide a pre-shift safety check and more importantly for audit purposes provide a detailed record of that safety performed which includes the pass or fail, the date it was performed and completed as well as the identification of the vehicle and most important the employee – operator that conducted the safety walk around. One of our customers originating from Saskatchewan but with grain facilities all over Canada specializing in grain, proteins and starches. Was looking for a fail-safe method to organize and account for all the safeties within a large and quite varied fleet.
Not Just Forklifts
Due to the various nature of the grain business and the multiple tasks that are required to produce, store and load various truck containers and ocean-going ship vessels this company had a material handling fleet of many different vehicles. Everything from forklifts, electric walkies to compact construction equipment and frontend loaders as well as aerial lift tables to handle maintenance requirements. Over time and realized by several audits was that the current process of paper record showed that the company was vulnerable to lost records, failure to perform the safety and or to turn in the paper. When the audits are performed a rating based on the percentage of accountability is assigned and for this company that puts safety first a score of less than perfect was unacceptable.
OSHAX: 100% Safety Compliance
Starting with the forklift in the milling chambre the operations management and the health and safety officers decided to try the OSHAX Automatic Pre-Shift Safety Check System. The system is extremely efficient in that it functions as soon as the vehicle is powered up. If the system is not currently operating with a performed, completed and recorded pre-shift safety check an audio alarm with illuminating light is constantly on OSHAX operator check box. At the beginning of the shift the operator is required to sign in and perform the safety check, only when the safety is complete will the warning lights and audible notification turn off. Depending on the shift, daily, continental or rolling 8 it will come on again when the shift expires requiring the next operator to perform the legislated requirement. The system then stores that data securely for management to download via USB on a manipulatable excel file. The safety compliance report provides a detailed history of safeties for all periods of vehicle operation. That data includes the operator identification, vehicle number a list of safety questions with pass or fail acknowledgement and the time it took the operator to perform the safety. This time recognition allowed the company to determine if due diligence was being performed and more importantly set benchmarks for all operators and equipment. All the above with a date and time sequence for purpose of record and audit. With no exception for loss records the management team then deployed the OSHAX on all mobile equipment. Another advantage was that the simplified standalone OSHAX is easy to retrofit on all equipment without the requirement for additional options that are not required. This ensures that the system provides a significant cost advantage rather than a large R.O.I. With only two wires for installation the OSHAX can be done by any equipment service provider and or a competent maintenance employee.
