Maintenance Strategies to Control Hazards
There are two general types of maintenance processes needed to control hazards, preventive and corrective:
- Preventive maintenance to make sure equipment and machinery operates safely and smoothly. This program is proactive because it helps to prevent equipment failure and injuries.
- Corrective maintenance to make sure equipment and machinery gets back into safe operation quickly. This program is reactive in nature because it is accomplished only after equipment has failed or someone has been injured.
Hazard Tracking Procedures
An essential part of any day-to-day safety and health effort is the correction of hazards that occur in spite of your overall prevention and control program. Documenting these corrections is equally important, particularly for larger sites.
Documentation is important because:
- It keeps management and safety staff aware of the status of long-term correction items;
- It provides a record of what occurred, should the hazard reappear at a later date; and
- It provides timely and accurate information that can be supplied to an employee who reported the hazard.
The hierarchy of controls is the standard system of strategies to effectively eliminate workplace hazards. Remember, the first question to ask when considering ways to eliminate a hazard is, "can we apply engineering controls?" You may need to use a combination of strategies to effectively eliminate the hazard. Whatever it takes, do it. You are not just saving a life...you are saving a father, a mother, a son, or a daughter....you are saving a family. It's worth the effort!
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
2-10. What are the two types of maintenance conducted in a hazard control program?
You forgot to answer the question!