HOT TAKE | Mastering LOTO for Shift-Change Safety

Hot Take on Streamlining LOTO for a Safe Shift Change

How do you master LOTO for shift-change safety in your industry?

Throughout the years, we have seen a lot of different ways to perform Lockout Tagout (LOTO) for shift-change safety. The most common methods always include the following:  

• Single personal padlock per employee 
• Multiple personal padlocks per employee  
• Car seals 
• Departmental locks 
• Control locks 
• Tags 

Although these technically all comply with regulations for handling shift changes, they are certainly not all equal in terms of safety and efficiency. To understand this better, check out this context from a 2010 EHS Today article, 

“The easiest way to understand the lockout/tagout standard’s stance on group lockout and shift changes is to understand (and I mean really understand) the intent of the section, which is: To prevent unexpected start-up of equipment or energy to protect employees from harm.” 

With this in mind, let’s look at the different ways to tackle LOTO and shift changes in different scenarios.

Single Energy Isolation Point 

Do’s

• Install a departmental padlock on the single isolation point to prevent anyone from a different department starting up the machine. 
• Have management install a control padlock on the single isolation point for the same reason as the departmental lock. If you’re unsure about the difference between a departmental and a control lock, check out this article. 
• Install a tag alongside the departmental or control padlock to indicate who to contact for inquiries about the work. 

Don’ts

• Do not put your personal padlock on the single isolation point and leave. Your personal padlock is for your safety, not the safety of others. It will also prevent people from re-energizing the machine while you’re away. 
• Never remove your personal padlock before the departmental or control padlock has been installed. 
• Don’t leave the energy-isolating device unlocked. 

Since in these cases there is a single isolation point, we don’t care too much about the integrity of the lockout. As there is a single isolation point where the employee puts their padlock, so the integrity verification is performed while putting on the padlock. 

Multiple Energy Isolation Points 

Do’s 

• Management installs a control lock on the lockbox. 
• Management fills the accompanying tag to document who to contact for information about the job’s status or the lockout’s integrity. 
• You can equally install a departmental padlock on the lockbox to prevent anyone from a different department from starting up the machine. 
• Install a tag alongside the departmental padlock to indicate who to contact for inquiries about the work. 
• Install a car seal on the lockbox and document the car seal number on the Energy Control Procedure (ECP), so that the employee who picks up the task later can know whether or not the LOTO has been tampered with. 

Don’ts 

• Never leave your personal padlock on the lockbox and leave. Your personal padlock is for your safety, not the safety of others. It will also prevent people from re-energizing the machine while you’re away. 
• Do not remove your personal padlock before the departmental or control padlock has been installed. 
• Do not, ever, leave the lockbox unlocked. 
• Never install a departmental padlock without a car seal. 

Depending on the number of energy-isolating devices you locked out, failing to apply a car seal when using a departmental padlock could cause significant delays in picking up the work. Although each employee has the right to request verification of the lockout’s integrity, not applying a car seal when using only a departmental padlock, forces the first employee to pick-up the work to check. This is because a departmental padlock cannot guarantee the lockout’s integrity like a control padlock can, since multiple employees, not managers, have the key to the padlock.  You can master LOTO for shift change safety, it isn’t rocket science – as long as you follow the right process and eliminate bad habits among your crew.

Did we miss something? We’ve seen a lot in our 35+ years of working to protect those in the Paper Industry. That said, we are open to any opportunity to gain another perspective – so, feel free to reach out and teach us something new. Your voice is one we want to hear!

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