Want Safety In Manufacturing? Turn to the Safety Manager!
When it comes to safety in manufacturing, the safety manager is an employer’s point man for worker safety. This means that the safety manager’s responsibilities start with ensuring that all of the employer’s OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Association) mandated responsibilities are met. The following are five of the main responsibilities OSHA places on employers:
1. Provide a workplace that is free from serious safety and health hazards
2. Monitor the workplace to ensure employees follow safety in manufacturing
In addition, the safety manager is usually the person responsible for ensuring the company is in compliance with OSHA employer requirements. These types of requirements include:
If the company is not exempt, or partially exempt from the OSHA record keeping requirements, the safety manager ensures that records of work-related injuries and illnesses are maintained. To be partially exempt an employer must meet one of the following requirements:
3. Getting The Safety Responsibility Done
With the responsibilities of a safety manager encompassing such a broad range for safety in manufacturing facilities, how do they accomplish all of this? The following are some of the functions that are the responsibility of a safety manager, and that result in compliance with OSHA requirements. In larger organizations safety assistants will be responsible for some of these functions. In a smaller organization the owner, or HR manager, may be responsible for safety.
The responsibilities of a safety manager may include:
Overall, the responsibilities of a safety manager include anything required to ensure complete compliance with OSHA standards, and for maintaining a safe and healthy workplace. What this means will be different in each workplace. At a minimum it requires familiarity with OSHA standards and implementing management practices to ensure compliance with those requirements
Improve Safety in Manufacturing Facilities with Good Signage
One of the critical responsibilities of a safety manager is to ensure that durable, clear and effective signs and labels are used. The best way to accomplish this is by using a label printer and tough-tested labeling supplies.
Note Safety Violations with Clear Tags
In order to keep employees and supervisors focused on the importance of safety in the organization, the safety manager should TAG ANY safety violations with different colored TAGS. When operations personnel see these TAGS, they must fill them out as to what action was taken to correct the safety violation and what will be done to avoid it the next time.
As Safety Manager, in one company where I was the man responsible for safety in manufacturing operations, I saw an ocean going container being unloaded without safety shoes being used by warehouse employees, there was no unloading dock, the forklift was not able to get into the 40 foot ocean going container and they used long rubber strips to move the pallets inside the container. Naturally the employees in this container jumped out to avoid the heavy tipping pallets, and the forklift was not maintained properly, and died several times while unloading this container. There were colored tags all over this UNSAFE operation. The Warehouse Manager had to write a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to eliminate these unsafe issues for the next 40 foot ocean going container that was due in the following week. This was a lesson on how NOT to practice Safety. Never take safety for granted!