In every engineering environment, safety and maintenance should be the absolute number one priority. The costs of lacking best practice have been brought into focus by Hindu Business Online’s report on the recent Unchahar plant accident, where poor equipment maintenance led to 32 deaths. While incidents of this type are exceedingly rare, they highlight the severe cost of substandard maintenance in the workplace.
In your environment, there are three key areas in which to establish and follow best practice. They are best implemented sooner, rather than later, if not already a feature of your daily tasks. Best practice will make your environment a high-quality one for production, learning, and research, and ensure your safety, as well as your adherence to the National Safety Council guidelines.
Establishing The Best Maintenance Practices In Your Engineering Environment
Debris and water management
Many engineering environments will play host to a wide range of particulates and moistures. It’s important to ensure they don’t build up, and this is best done through specialist equipment. Firstly, ensure an area is well ventilated; this will remove toxins from the air and ensure your work does not get contaminated, and will also help to benefit the environment if fumes can be sequestered, as Mahindra’s Igatpuri power plant has shown. Secondly, look at the floors and walls in your environment: use a non-absorbent, non-flammable material, like sealed concrete. Alternatively, making use of containment mats will help to provide an easily cleaned and swept surface conducive to a good environment. Aim to have the environment regularly cleaned, preferably between activities, and remove any hazardous debris immediately and responsibly.
Keep a log of everything
Another key aspect of good practice is logging. You should have a physical record of everything: who enters a building, and when they have left; where to go if there’s a fire; and where health and safety-critical materials are located. Utilize visual management: something as simple as a red fire door sign is effective in this area. The other benefit is that you will have a better legal outlook. If proceedings are taken against you following an accident, having a clear record of your actions to secure an environment will put you in good stead.
Keeping on top of maintenance
With the excitement of new productivity and research, it can be easy to lose sight of older devices and their upkeep. If they remain in continuous use, maintenance is an absolute requirement. Maintenance causes inefficiency in machines, requiring upkeep over time, and perilously poorly maintained objects can be a hazard. The 2009 Air India tragedy is evidence of this, where experts blamed poor upkeep of engineered parts. Invest in the right tools, whether that’s chemical cleaning products, specific brushes, or an airvac system that is conducive to upkeep.
Engineering environments provide natural hazards through the work that goes on within them. Sadly, when standards slip, health and safety are at risk. Make sure your environment is a positive one by ensuring that you work, in an organized fashion, to maintain the security and safety of your surroundings.
