Some areas of occupational safety and health can be viewed as ‘set and forget.’ You create
policies and procedures which keep you in compliance and then need not change them for a long
time. Other areas are not as simple. Some require maintenance on an annual or semiannual basis,
and still others require ongoing and continuous oversight and maintenance.
Lockout tagout is one of these areas of occupational safety and health which require continuous,
ongoing oversight and maintenance. The reason for this is that there are many potential moving
parts which can impact your lockout tagout policies and procedures. To understand them all, you
must first understand OSHA Standard 1910.147, which governs lockout tagout policies and
procedures. This standard, however, is extremely complex and can be difficult to understand. But
suffice it to say that your lockout tagout policies and procedures could have need to be updated
every time you have a change to personnel, machinery, facility location, or machinery layout.
For these reasons, many employers hire third party lockout tagout auditing firms to help manage
and maintain lockout tagout policies and procedures. And though this can get costly, it is well
worth the costs to keep employees safe and avoid costly fines from OSHA. Unfortunately, this
also can leave periods of time between inspections where a company is susceptible to lockout
tagout policies and procedures which are not properly updated, as the third party auditing firm
will generally only be able to make changes during third party lockout tagout audits.
Now, however, there is another option available. Our Factory Solutions Software gives
employers the strength and comfort of a third party auditing firm without the costs or the need to
give up control of the policies and procedures. Factory Solutions Software is an online Program
which allows you to create, monitor, and update your lockout tagout policies and procedures. It
puts you back in control of your own procedures while giving you the comfort of knowing it is
constantly and perpetually monitored by a leading third party lockout tagout auditing firm.
If you have any questions about maintaining lockout tagout policies and procedures or about our
Factory Solutions Software, please contact us. If you have anything to add about the importance
of properly maintaining lockout tagout policies and procedures, please leave a comment.
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