Lifting the Hood on Safe 6

Let’s lift the hood on Safe 6.  Do you think it’s a straight 6 or a V-6?  Never mind, that’s going a bit too far.  Let’s just consider each cylinder of the Safe 6 engine.  (Okay, I heard you, enough already with the car analogy.)

In the previous post we laid out what employees need to know about Safe 6.  It wasn’t extensive.  It was practical.  We also said the person responsible for explaining the Safe 6 Brief should have a solid understanding.  Obviously, the person preparing the Brief needs to have the greatest familiarity with Safe 6.  However, Safe 6 is very forgiving. Briefs don’t have to start out as a complete and thorough document.

A Safe 6 Brief that covers the important points is just fine for a start.  In fact, it really should evolve as it is used by employees and with solicited input from employees. Employee involvement cannot be stressed enough.  So, the point is that to get started you don’t need a service department, just a motivated and enthusiastic salesman, I mean supervisor!

It’s time to break down Safe 6. There are 6 simple steps, three that are addressed prior to the task and three that encompass task completion:

Pre-Work Phase: Recognize – Prepare – Inspect
Work Phase: Control – Operate – Guard

A key commitment of The Safely Working Project is to build concepts using simple and sensible as guidelines (among others).  Safe 6 has been designed using these guidelines.  In fact, the best way to describe Safe 6 is by using a parts list (sorry, couldn’t resist).  Frankly, if Safe 6 can’t be put together with a simple parts list and diagram, it is too complicated.

Pre-Work Phase

1-Recognize All the Dangers – Know the Task

Authorization
Activities
Conditions
Dangers
Effects
Impact

2-Prepare and Organize the Workspace – Gather Everything Needed

Tools
Supplies
Equipment
PPE
Procedures
Qualifications

3-Inspect and Check the Equipment – Eliminate the Unexpected

Workspace
Inspection records
Ratings
Controls
Safety features
Components

Work Phase

4-Control the Conditions and Eliminate Dangers – Make it Safe

Verification
Team review
Supervisor approval
Eliminate
Control
Personal protective equipment

5-Engage and Complete the Task Skillfully – The Do’s

Trained
Posture
Awareness
Attentiveness
Start-up/shutdown
Work practices – do’s

6-Guard Against Mishaps – The Don’ts

Precautions – don’ts
Monitoring
Communications
Supervision
Emergency
Security

Safe 6 is designed to be flexible and applied to most any task.  That means that certain steps may not be as applicable as others or some of the “parts” won’t be needed.  Safe 6 attempts to be more inclusive than exclusive.  It’s always easier to cross things off a list than it is to add to it.  Don’t hesitate to apply Safe 6 as it can be best applied in your work situation.  Safe 6 applied is better than Safe 6 ignored.

Finally, Safe 6, along with The Safely Working Project, is a work in progress.  It is evolving and constantly being refined and improved.  If you have a question, comment or suggestion, please contact us.  Your feedback is important to all that use Safe 6 in their Safely Working Environment.

Speaking of Safely Working Environment, there’s more to come on that subject.  Stay tuned.

(Originally published 12/29/14)