Safety First Essay

The idea of Safety First is a noble one. It’s often a workplace culture, and both government organizations and corporations alike have adopted it. As a result, vast improvements have been made to manufacturing techniques, product quality, and laws governing safety. For instance, the semiconductor industry is just such an environment. According to the latest statistics from NIOSH, the semi industry ranks 7th lowest in accidents reported, of all industries surveyed. In the semi industry, meetings at every level begin with the lead slide stating “Safety First”, where safety concerns, such as escape routes and local protocol are expressed. In spite of these changes and survey results, the semi industry still experiences industrial accidents which

Firstly, equipment manufacturers design inherently dangerous systems with built-in safety devices known as engineering controls. These are interlocks that are meant to protect the unsuspecting from the dangers that lay inside. Second, all newcomers to the industry are indoctrinated by loads of videos and web-based training, solely dedicated to instill the cultural belief that safety is first. This training is recognized in the industry as an administrative control. Lastly, self-regulation is applied; the individual is trained on specific equipment they will soon be working on, so as to explain the inherent dangers one might face while performing a specific task. Trainees are shown how to use Lock-Out/ Tag-Out (LOTO) to properly control hazardous energies (CoHE). LOTO is a term used when one applies a lock or device on a hazard, along with a tag to identify it is currently unsafe to operate the equipment while under service. The term CoHe is used to identify a force which must be controlled due to its potential to injure, disfigure, maim or kill. The individual who applied the LOTO to a piece of equipment is the sole owner of a key that would unlock said device. In this practice, an individual is protected from an unsuspecting person turning on a dangerous piece of equipment while it is being serviced. Once service has been completed, the technician would unlock the equipment and return it to normal

Many of these tasks are quite mundane but well documented, yet still present the same hazards to individuals involved in the maintenance process. If a task becomes so ritualistic in nature, one forgets to practice all aspects of the process at hand, even when it is documented procedurally. Due to the complacency of an individual, a document defining the process is opened quickly, summarily reviewed and immediately becomes a hindrance to the process. By turning a process into a mere act of reflex and extending the time between those reflexes only serves to relax one’s procedural techniques. Compound the mundane routine by adding a variable, such as changing a toxic gas control valve and odds are someone will be visiting an emergency room or worse. This is why the term “specific tasks” has been emphasized previously. Often, the specific task becomes convoluted into a wide-range task. At this point the PTP form should be employed but is often overlooked and, or downplayed in importance by the customer and the technician. Again, the combining factors of stress, lost time and revenue, and complacency often lead to something going