As the owner of a metal fabrication business, you may need to maintain strict safety standards. This doesn’t mean that you should throw any caution you have in your budget to the wind because you can get the best of both worlds. Here are some cost-effective safety practices worth your consideration that you should make for your industrial metal fabrication business.
Perform Regular Maintenance
The first thing that you need to do is to set regular schedules for maintaining your equipment. This can enable you to have more efficient equipment and also lengthen its lifespan on top of making it safer to use. Find a professional who can offer you regular maintenance for your business equipment, and it will be one less thing that you need to worry about.
The fact that you won’t have to be the one to remember to call them if they are your designated maintenance person will allow you more peace of mind, as there’s a lower risk that you’ll forget to have the maintenance done. Draw motivation from the fact that predictive maintenance can reduce the overall costs of industrial maintenance by up to 30%, decrease breakdowns by over 70%, and cut downtime by up to 45%.
Invest in Safety Gear
It’s important to also supply your staff with safety gear. Make sure that it’s easily accessible for them and that it’s the right specification based on your industry and other details. This will be important for purposes of both compliance and creating a safer work environment. Have the relevant safety gear and equipment within easy reach of your staff so that no one has a reason to place their health at risk. The potential blow to your finances that you risk experiencing in the event of an accident is a lot more than the cost of buying the necessary safety gear and equipment.
Replace Any Worn Parts As Soon As Possible
If you receive reports of any parts or machines being worn out, remember that this is a massive risk to your worker’s safety. Bearing this in mind, do any necessary replacement as soon as possible and maintain your business standards at the right degree of safety and efficiency. Have a good supplier on standby to make sure that you don’t have to start shopping around for replacement parts when they are due. Ensure that they have the best quality of parts and understand the different terms that allude to quality. For example, normalizing is a technique of heat treating that entails holding a part under heat as high as 1700°F and then air cooling it in order to increase the ferritic grains for improved consistency. Know the right descriptions for the right parts and you will have a great chance of getting the best quality.
Train Your Staff
Finally, safety in your business will often be dependent on your staff, so you must take the time to train them. Set aside the finances that you need to train your staff and make sure that they uphold the safety standards at all times. Retrain them after a certain period to ensure that no one is taking any unnecessary risks. This is important to do because a reputable metal fabricator, for example, will have safety training as part of their documented quality control program. Covered in this safety training should be the proper use of Personal Protective Equipment like welder hoods and 3M masks.
These safety practices can improve the environment of your industrial metal fabrication business. With a lower risk of injury and destruction of equipment, you have a great chance to scale up and grow your finances over time.