There are few things worse for a business owner than coming in to work to find OSHA auditors

there waiting to inspect your facility. No matter how well prepared you are, no matter how strong

your occupational safety and health procedures are, you will always be nervous in that situation.

And rightly so; OSHA will generally find something if they come to inspect your workplace.

And that something will generally cost you dearly in fines.

But of all the areas of occupational safety and health to worry about, lockout tagout is among the

most troublesome. It is very complicated, very difficult to maintain properly, and carries very

hefty fines when there is an issue. So if you are going to start preparing your company the right

way for a potential audit, lockout tagout might be a good place to start. And the easiest way to

start is to ensure you have an up-to-date, compliant procedure library established based upon

Standard 1910.147.

Unfortunately, the standard itself is what makes lockout tagout so complicated. The standard

is difficult to understand, even more difficult to put in place, and there are no true shortcuts or

guides to help you, as every facility will need different procedures. For this reason, you need to

either have a lockout tagout expert on staff or you need to hire a qualified third party lockout

tagout auditing firm. Otherwise, you are taking a big risk with an important component of your

occupational safety and health plan.

Fortunately, there is now another option which gives you the assurance of a third party lockout

tagout specialty firm without the associated costs. It is our Factory Solutions Software. This

software is monitored by us at PF Safety, provides full lockout tagout protection and monitoring,

but is managed day-to-day by you. So you remain in control of your procedures, your daily

changes, and your protections, while having the peace of mind that your procedures are in

compliance.

If you have any questions about lockout tagout procedures or about our Factory Solutions

Software, please contact us. If you have anything to add about lockout tagout procedures, please

leave a comment.