Purpose

The purpose of this program is to protect employees from injuries due to the potential release of hazardous energy while servicing and maintaining equipment.

Scope

This program establishes requirements for hazardous energy control. It is to be used to ensure that machines and equipment as described in Attachment B are isolated from all potentially hazardous energy sources:

•                     Whenever servicing or maintenance activities are in progress or when equipment guards or other safety devices are removed.

•                     An employee is required to place any part of their body into an area on a machine or piece of equipment where work is actually performed upon the material being processed (point of operation) or where an associated danger zone exists during a machine operating cycle.

Responsibilities

Any member working on a piece of electrical equipment or supervising a non-member (e.g. repair person) working a a piece of electrical equipment shall comply with this procedure.

The OOD is responsible for the effective implementation of this program and to see that all required procedures are followed in every instance and will initiate all lockouts.

Basic lockout procedures

All electrical equipment must be unplugged when working on it. If that is not feasible then the circuit breaker controling the piece of equipoment shall be turn to the off position and a red tag will be hung from the breaker.

Only the person who initiated the red tag can remove it.

If a circuit has a red tag on the breaker no one is allowed to turn that breaker on.

Release from lockout/tagout

Before a red tag can be removed, the person who placed the red tag should do teh following:

Step 1: Check the machine or equipment and the immediate area around it to make sure all nonessential items (tools/materials) have been removed and that the machine or equipment is ready to energize. Ensure all guards have been replaced including interlocks, if so equipped.

Step 2: Make sure all employees are safely positioned away from the machine or equipment

Step 3: Verify that the controls are in neutral or off position.

Step 4: Remove the lockout devices and reenergize the machine or equipment.

Step 5: Notify affected employees that the servicing or maintenance is completed and the machine or equipment is ready for use.

Periodic review

At least annually, the program coordinator or auditor must verify the effectiveness of the energy control procedures. The review must include a demonstration of the procedures and may be carried out through random audits and observations.

The program coordinator or auditor must review the hazardous energy control procedure with all authorized employees, and actually observe the employees using the hazardous energy control procedure. The review must be certified and documented by the auditor. A sample hazardous energy control lockout program inspection form is attached. (Attachment C).

The review is to ensure that the energy control procedures are being properly used and authorized employees can ask questions related to the procedures. Any deficiencies must be corrected immediately, either by modification of the procedure, retraining of employees, or a combination of both.

Outside contractors

Outside personnel or contractors involved in lockout of equipment or machinery that affect facility employees must inform facility management of their energy control procedures and be informed of the energy control procedures used by the facility. A member providing an outside contrtactor with access to teh facility is responsible for ensuring compliance with this rule.