Functional safety, the idea that safety can be beneficial to productivity, is a mindset that is difficult to incorporate into traditional thinking. Adding to that the lack of spare time and the demands placed on personnel in today’s marketplace, learning a new skill that goes against most of our former teaching is something that is difficult to get our thoughts, or our schedules, wrapped around.
This is where the safety experts come in. TÜV Rheinland Functional Safety Experts and Engineers have the training, the background, and the new mindset to help you transform your safety systems. These safety experts are not only well-trained, they are dedicated to improving machine safety and productivity. The insights these safety experts provide help you best implement new technologies, and incorporate those new technologies into an improved safety culture.
Two insights, probably the most important ones to take away when it comes to functional safety, are the implementation of the Safety Life-cycle and the participation of all personnel in the safety system.
- The Safety Life-cycle is a continuous improvement cycle based around machine safety. It stresses the idea that safety doesn’t stop at the end of the project, and that safety should be consistently reevaluated to ensure that the installed safeguards meet the current operational requirements. Everyone who has worked with, or on, a machine knows that on the day the machine is installed it is asked to do more, and those demands only increase as time goes on. As those demands increase, the load on the safety system increases. Those demands can create or modify hazards that weren’t initially expected and may require different safeguards. The Safety Life-cycle ensures you’re looking at the current state of a machine and its safety systems.
- The main focus of Functional Safety is not on making the machine safe, but making the interactions with the machine safe. Bringing all departments, from janitorial to executive, into the mix when determining risk on a machine brings differing perspectives to the process and gives more opportunity to ensure that all risks are assessed and safeguarded. The interactions an operator has are different than the interactions a maintenance person or supervisor will have with that same machine, and all those interactions need investigated to ensure the safety system is adequate to protect ALL personnel.
Functional Safety is not just a new trend, it’s a philosophy that marries safety to productivity. Functional Safety experts bring a focus to this new philosophy that will enable you to not only keep your entire workforce safe, but increase their productivity as well. With today’s demands, how can you not work towards increasing production through being safer?
SMC can help get your team on track with a Safety Assessment from our TÜV Rheinland Safety Certified Engineer. SMC’s assessment will provide credible and effective documentation for the safety of your workforce including concerns in OSHA-mandated machine guarding, safety standard compliance, safety strategy hindering production, risk assessments, safety technology, and other safeguards properly protecting your employees. Follow the link below for more information on the SMC Safety Assessment.