Whatever the size of your company, creating a safe manufacturing environment helps keep your workforce healthy. Implementing simple safety protocols to make the workplace less hazardous has implications for business success, allowing you to work safely and efficiently without having to pay out for compensation or close the site down as the result of an accident.

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Create a strong safety culture

A safety culture needs to be created at the top and then promoted throughout your company. The Health and Safety Executive has guidelines, including work strategy plans, to enable you to create a safe working environment. Make it a team effort: often your workforce has the expertise to develop the safest and most cost-effective solutions to workplace safety issues.

Workplace automation

The Internet of Things and advances in automation using workplace sensors are a smart way to use technology to improve safety in the workplace. Creating ‘connected workers’ feeds back safety information in real time and allows workers to be monitored for over-exertion, fatigue and other red flags. Feedback from machinery can offer information on the way a piece of equipment is performing and how it copes with various processes. This data can be used to plan maintenance schedules to keep equipment performing safely and efficiently.

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Create a corporate safety plan

This requires a clear chain of command and should be led by site safety coordinators and line managers who have the responsibility for investigating and reporting incidents in the workplace. Create a series of risk assessments and hazards and work closely with all stakeholders in the work environment to develop your corporate plan. For example, if you work closely with electrical control components manufacturers, like http://www.osmelectrical.com/, consult them on the kinds of safety practices that should be in place as part of your comprehensive plan.

Communication and training

Regular consultation and communication between company and workforce and scheduled training are essential to creating a safer workplace. Revisiting and updating risk assessments and protocols for safe handling of machinery and working environments creates a sense of corporate responsibility for safety, while ensuring that the workforce is trained to the highest standards creates a sense of ownership for the safe handling of processes, equipment and machinery. By approaching the creation of a safer manufacturing environment as a team effort, you’ll impact positively on efficiency and productivity.