Updating policies and procedures for any area of occupational safety and health can be a tedious

task. First, you need to ensure you understand any changes to the federal guidelines which

govern the hazards, be it an OSHA Standard, NFPA code or standard, or a standard from any

other governing body. Next, you need to understand what changes have occurred within the

facility since the policy was created or last updated. Then, you need to reconcile the changes to

the guidelines with the changes to the facility to create a new version of the policies and

procedures which are both compliant and easily implemented by the safety team.

Fortunately, this is a process which normally does not need to be done often. There are, however,

a few areas of occupational safety and health, such as lockout tagout, which need more

aggressive monitoring and more frequent updating. In the case of lockout tagout, this is because

there are a great number of variables which impact the policies and procedures. Anytime there is

a change of personnel, machinery, location, or facility layout, there is the potential for a need to

update lockout tagout policies and procedures. This constant need to review the policies and

procedures, coupled with the time it can take to update them and the extremely complicated

OSHA Standard 1910.147 which governs them, is a remedy for a very difficult and time

consuming process.

As such, many companies hire third party lockout tagout auditing firms to assist in the

maintenance of their policies and procedures. Unfortunately, these services can be expensive,

take ownership of the lockout tagout policies and procedures out of the hands of management,

and still leave gaps in coverage between audits. As such, we have created Factory Solutions

Software, a web-based program which allows you to track, monitor, and update your lockout

tagout policies and procedures from anywhere you have an internet connection. It allows you to

maintain your own procedures, update them as needed in real time, and have the security of a

leading third party lockout tagout auditing firm overseeing them.

If you have any questions about updating policies and procedures for lockout tagout or about our

Factory Solutions Software, please contact us. If you have anything to add about the importance

of ensuring lockout tagout policies and procedures are updated, please leave a comment.