As construction winds down and systems begin to be turned over to the customer, the dangers increase exponentially. Always coordinate the day’s work with the various department heads. Address any conflicts or confusion to the supervising operator. Get confirmed permission before working on anything.
Here are two real-life situations that help drive these thoughts home.
- You energize something you didn’t know operators were using for training. In a plastics plant, operators were being trained on a large scrap grinder that was presumably “shut off.” The trainer didn’t lock out the circuit. The electricians, doing operational testing, started it up. The trainer’s hand had been in the chute only moments earlier.
- Operators don’t know you’re working on “their” equipment. The new staff at the new plant may not be fully trained in lockout/tagout. At a new coal plant in Michigan, “in-house” people grew increasingly annoyed at finding things de-energized so they removed tags and cut locks. Electricians were conducting resistance testing on those same circuits.
