The importance of health and safety (and the legal pressures and obligations to follow certain health and safety measures) has increased in intensity over recent years, and when it comes to operating heavy machinery and automatic machines, it could not be more crucial.

So, whether you are the owner or indeed manager of an engineering, distribution, or manufacturing business and are looking to brush up on your knowledge; or you are coming at this from a more academic health and safety viewpoint, then continue reading for a comprehensive guide to health safety when using automatic machines. 

Don’t underestimate the Importance of Machine Safety

The supreme importance of machine safety can simply never be understated, and as the owner or manager of a workplace who is in charge of a warehouse, for example—with numerous different automatic machines and the boss of many employees who work with these types of machines every day—you have both a legal and moral obligation to ensure optimum safety levels. 

There is a horrifying, and seemingly never-ending list of accidents that happen all too regularly, which are simply down to incorrect health and safety procedures.

Use Adequate Signage and Safety Markings

On and around the warehouse floor, there should be clear, bright markings to indicate the safety and danger areas around each machine and you should ensure that these markings are always kept clean and visible. Also hiring machine safety services could be the best way to avoid any incidence in working areas.

Additionally, restricted areas of the floor, or sections of the warehouse which can only be entered when the correct PPE is worn, should also be clearly marked out. 

Provide Your Employees With High-Quality Equipment

One clear way to ensure that your employees are as safe and secure as possible when operating machinery is to ensure you both invest in smaller tools, welding machines, drills, saws, and any other equipment which are of top quality and of the highest specification, and that every single piece of machinery is regularly inspected, monitored, and maintained.

Carry Out Machine Maintenance

Perhaps one of the most preventable reasons why workers who regularly operate automatic and heavy machinery suffer from accidents is due to malfunctions of the equipment and machinery themselves.

This is why it is absolutely essential to stick to a schedule of maintenance throughout the entirety of your warehouse and shop floor—even with smaller items of machinery which you ordinarily would not include in a maintenance schedule at home.

Mismanagement and poor maintenance of heavy machinery can cause blockages, overheating, breakdowns, dull blades, and a host of other problems and issues which will unfortunately inevitably result in injuries or even fatalities at work. 

Carry Out Risk Assessments

It is absolutely crucial for yourself, or an elected member of your workforce, to conduct regular and exceedingly thorough risk assessments throughout the entirety of your warehouse and/or shop floor. Often, when independent companies, or indeed government affiliated ones, are sent in to inspect workspaces, they find health and safety hazards which have not been addressed in the testing stages of the addition of new machinery. 

Also Visit: RantCell 4G/5G automation vs LTE 4G/5G Tester Equipment & RF Drive Test Tools