OT but relevant. LOTO

Hi all

With all the experience and knowledge of the forum members, coupled with the diverse range of industries, I'm hoping to find an ideal solution to our problem of managing LOTO.

As we are now:

we're a 24/7 plant with every 24 hours covered by two maintenance crews on 12 hour shifts. LOTO consists of a cabinet of ten padlocks, not keyed alike, and a small booklet to enter date, key number, machine locked out and by whom. Lets just say the system aint working. Padlocks have all disappeared or had keys lost, they were not always booked out and have also been cut-off or used for other purposes. It isn't exactly managed, to say the least!

Where we need to be:

due to shifts not handing over on the shop floor, or items locked off for repair that will be reinstated when the shift that locked it off is off... a more secure system is sought.
Ideally it needs to be managed and managed with rigour... but until then something needs to be done.

It needs to be common to all shifts, and simple to adhere to. It's pretty disturbing that locks aren't available to the guys who have let the system fail; THAT NEEDS ADDRESSING FOREMOST.

Any suggestions, please?


Initial thoughts: each member assigned two personal locks with etched identity, keyed alike. Management to hold a master key for all and only management to remove a personal lock of a shift member off shift.
Need to ascertain a way of recording lock-offs.
What if the Manager is off ie after 'office' hours, weekend, night or holiday?
We're talking beer bottling industry so no life/death situations, just profit!

kindest regards
s.f

The plant I worked at had several lock boxes mounted in key areas of the plant. Each box contained 10 or so locks all keyed the same (one key for the set). Each person had their own set of 3 locks keyed with 1 key (all 3 locks were keyed the same). When someone locked out a piece of equipment, they used the locks from the lock box, then threw the key in the box. They then put their lock on the lock box. Anybody else working on it could throw their lock on the box. You of course could not get the key that would unlock the equipment until everyone's personal lock was off of the box.

As long as we are human it will never work

Forms will not be filled in

Padlocks will be lost

Keys will be lost

Everyone will deny it

Sorry

All i can think of is finger print recognition - expensive but at least theres a record and you cant deny your fingerprint LOL

@ 504bloke; thanks

I know, I'm on a hiding to nothing on this one!!!

I'm just hoping someone, from all walks of industry, has the answer... but I'm a realist.

Thanks dmroeder, again we're relying on these guys to put the key in the box, but it'll no doubt end up at the bottom of a toolbox or pocket, or abyss!

Hi,
Personally, when my life is on the line, I don't want management or anyone else to have a key to the lock. What the hell do they need one for?

I'll remove the LOTO when I'm done, everyone else should just back away from the job site. The companys need to make more money is less important than my personal safety.


Ideally each mechanic/electrician will be issued 2 LOTO devices than no one else has a key to. If they get broken or turn up missing they should be re-supplied on a reasonable basis as needed by the company.

At the shift change the workers should exchange LOTO devices (leaving worker removes theirs & incoming employee locks out with theirs). When your on a 12 hour shift there is no shift overlap to do these things, which creates problems. The only reasonable solution is to allow the leaving crew stop work a few minutes early so they can handle these safety related tasks. This program needs to be observed or supervised by a managment person to ensure it is done correctly.

I locked out a machine last week to remove/replace some worn bearings. I left the key in the lock like I always have. I removed the bearing/shaft assembly but couldn't get the bearing off the shaft with the tools at hand so I took the assembly to the shop to pull the bearing off with a 3 jaw puller. This was at the shift change. When I returned from the shop I saw the evening shift employee powering up the machine. I was so upset at this disrespect of my safety that I threw the parts on the floor at his feet & stormed off the the supervisors office & told them I couldn't work with this kind of person. The supervisor blamed my for leaving the key in my lock. I agreed that I failed to do the procedure correctly but still refused to work with the guy. He didn't know where I was, he just knew he couldn't see me from his viewpoint. The locks are there to prevent the machine from moving unexpectedly, if other people have the key then you don't have any guarantees,

That is my $0.02

BD

A couple of places that I worked at had locks that where ordered to be keyed diferent, but still have a master that would unlock them all. The forman or shift supper would have acsess to just incase. We would also have to ask for and sign a log to take a lock, making us the one responcable for them. So if any problems you have someone to go to.

I think most of the big lock companies can do that for you. You would have to contact them I do not know where they got any of there keys.

Here at work they gave the employees 5 keyed red safety locks. At the end of the shift we remove our locks and the next shift puts theirs on. If an employee fails to remove his lock, he is called back to work to remove the lock at no pay. If the employee fails to return or cannot be contacted them the lock is cut off and the employee receives a write up.
Yes shift changes are hectic. No one wants to stay over the few minutes it takes to change the locks out or talk about the problem. And no one wants to show up early for the same thing.
At first there were a lot of problems, but once the company showed that they were serious about calling people back to remove their locks or wrote up for removing their lock and leaving the machine in an unsafe condition it didn’t take long for the message to get through.
Now there is no problem and rarely is anyone required to stay over more that 5 minutes. Most of the time the crew comes in goes out and changes to locks. The crew getting off goes home the crew coming in reads the log to see what is going on. Yes some of us stay over and discusses to problem. If I’m 5 or 10 minutes late getting off, big deal. But then again this is not a daily thing.

Our company policy for personal locks is one lock = one key.

Most places I work are as Patrick describes: the mill manager has your home address and phone number and you're going to come back on your own time if you leave a lock installed.

Everyone drives out the gate past a big weathered sign: "Have You Pulled Your Locks ?"

One of those has been creatively defaced, decades ago, and remains so. It's probably a better reminder because of it.

Our company has put a lot of time and effort into this subject. We have sheets that are established for the equipment in each area. All items that are to be locked out are labeled and on the sheet. The sheet version is controlled, so only one version is available on the network. A lockout sheet has to be printed out during the shift it is to be used (date/time printed on sheet). We have a Master and a Verifier go around and hang/check locks together. They use the same color locks for an entire lockout and all of these locks only have one key. That key is then locked in a group lockout box (available from many vendors) and the sheet is hung by the box. Anyone who wants to work under the lockout checks the sheet to ensure the equipment they are concerned about is locked out and then hangs their personal lock on the box. Each person is issued at least 3 locks which are keyed alike and there is only one key (others are destroyed when the locks are issued). If a person leaves the site with their locks hanging, there is a procedure for the supervisor to cut the lock off and the employee that left faces discipline (time off)

If the lockout goes across shifts, a new Master and Verifier print out a new sheet, walk around and verify the locks hanging and then hang their locks on the box before the previous master/verifier remove their locks to go home.

Just to clear-up: by management I mean engineering top-dogs, not Bubba who has progressed up from operator and has no technical aptitude whatsoever!

Thanks for the input guys... some good stuff.

I have worked several places and the best system I have seen when dealing with a 24/7 operation is that the Techs are issued Locks with their name on them and they are responcible for the locks. When shift change takes place they must pull their lock and watch the next shift place their lock on the machine. In one place there was a form for the lock exchange between shifts that had to be filled out.

I like this method for 2 reasons. One it forces someone to be responcible. Two if a machine is going to be down for more than one shift the techs have to talk to each other.

Several things will help:

1) One key per lock. If you have more than one lock, they can be keyed alike, but no one else should ever have a key to your lock. There is always the acetylene key or cutoff wheel for emergencies when the guy is on an airplane to Venezuela or something. It should take multiple signatures and significant effort to override someone else's lock.

2) Uniquely colored locks to be used only for lockout and nothing else. You can get fancy and have several colors for different departments (like we do here), but pick some that are unique that will be easy to tell if they get used for other purposes.

3) Enforcement. If you want someone to follow a rule that's inconvenient, then you must enforce it. It must be maede more inconvenient to break the rules.

4) Shift change. The oncoming shift should apply their locks before the outgoing shift removes theirs. This helps enforce communication too.

The lockbox can be necessary when you have lots of people on the same job and/or lots of hazards to lock out.

Number 3 is really the only one that matters. Without enforcement, its all moot.

Every person responsible for locking equipment has personal locks w/ keys.
These locks CANNOT be unlocked by management.
Group work involves a group lock, the keys are then locked into a group lockbox that everyone involved puts personal locks on. Can't be opened w/out all the personal locks removed.

Policy is to have one shift remove their locks as the next replaces them w/ their own. The original lockout form has sections to allow lock responsibility to be passed from shift to shift. Signatures from the folks placing the actual locks and the supervisors cover this.

In the event a lock is left on a piece of equipment, SOP is to page the user in the plant, call the user at home, call the secondary contact for the the user. In the event the user cannot be contacted, A walk-through of the equipment must be performed by the Plant Manager/Delegate to verify the lock owner and coworkers are not still involved w/ the system. Only then will the PM authorize the lock be cut off.

Penalty for removing locks(barring the above procedure) is severe. Termination is likely for the first offense.

Everyone drives out the gate past a big weathered sign: "Have You Pulled Your Locks ?"

One of those has been creatively defaced, decades ago, and remains so. It's probably a better reminder because of it.

Click to expand...

I bet they substitued a "Di" for the "Lo".....

Lancie1 said:

I bet they substitued a "Di" for the "Lo".....

Click to expand...

Now I was thinking the "L" became a "C"