The Sandusky Safety Council’s “Above and Beyond” competition is an annual event that honors companies located in Sandusky County, OH for purposeful improvements in their safety and health issues.
Motion Controls Robotics’ safety group has been proactive in providing safety training to ensure compliance with all safety initiatives set forth, not only by facility goals, but also RIA’s Safety Standards for robot integrators.
Earlier the year, nine employees attended a ten-hour OSHA training course. The team brought back important safety issues to focus on going forward. One item that came to their attention during the OSHA training was the elimination of ladder usage in the workplace. OSHA views ladders as dangerous and removing them from the environment is beneficial to overall safety.
Dawn Rhodes, HR and Safety Specialist at MCRI, explained, “We determined that an electric boom lift would substantially reduce ladder use. The lift would increase quality and productivity by removing the manual aspects that are required when using a ladder. In addition, the flexible nature of the boom would save time and provide better access to areas that were previously out of or hard to reach.”
MCRI has not previously had any accidents involving ladders, and their proactive approach of changing current practices, not only curtails future incidents, but also encourages employees to look for other ways safety can be improved in the facility. In this way MCRI has gone “Above and Beyond” in promoting safety awareness in Sandusky County.
“Criteria for judging (the “Above and Beyond” contest), which was done by the safety council members in attendance, included: a clear presentation of the project; a demonstration that the project reduced injuries or had the potential to reduce injuries; an increase in safety awareness throughout the facility; cost effectiveness of the project; and productivity/efficiency improvement.” explains Jim Miranda, Manager of Sandusky County Safety Council.
