A solid safety program should encompass all of the activities of your business organization. You want to be sure to make hazard assessments to cover the office, manufacturing areas and driver safety if you have an outside sales force or trucking team. There are a number of typical plant safety procedures that you should expect to have addressed in your safety program.
Basic Hazard Assessment
Perform a basic hazard assessment on each functional work area. Your goal is to observe each area generally with the expectation of documenting the most immediate and obvious potential hazards your workers. Document the findings so that you can begin to establish the documented safety procedures for each of those areas.
Facility Environment Generally
The first place you look for hazards are along the floor. Trip and fall hazards are the most common hazards and the easiest to eliminate. These likely exist throughout your facility, so apply your procedures to cover the office, warehouse, manufacturing and shipping environments. Ensure that procedures address cording, "homemade" floor mats, spills and general housekeeping.
Office Environment
You will want to observe how personnel are positioned at desks, including their seat height, proximity to computer monitors, arm positions in relation to computer keyboards and the duration of computing tasks. Your procedures should cover office ergonomics. Addressing your employees' body positions in the work space will protect against repetitive motion injuries (carpal tunnel syndrome), leg pain, back pain and eye strain.
Manufacturing Environment
Your typical machine shop or other industrial operation will be rife with basic hazards. Your hazard assessment has likely uncovered potential accidents that are best prevented with personal protective equipment (PPE). Create procedures that include protections for eyes, hearing, hands and feet, clothing, and machine guarding as a minimum. For maintenance operations, a detailed lockout-tagout program to control hazardous energy is extremely important.
Warehouse Environment
If you have a large storage environment, which includes forklift operations and storage of items overhead, your basic safety procedures will include those for forklifts, industrial gloves and shoes, eye protection and hardhat use.
Shipping Environment
Your shipping area will likely require forklift operation procedures, too. Depending upon the product your company is making, procedures covering properly prepare boxed and skidding materials may be necessary.
Building Security
An often overlooked aspect of basic safety procedures is building security. Create procedures that detail how visitors will check in and the appropriate permissions for areas of visitation. Make sure visitors follow your basic safety procedures. Procedures should also include handle unauthorized visitors and what employees should do in the event of an emergency.
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