The mission of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is to set and enforce standards that assure a safe and healthful workplace. OSHA professionals perform site safety and health audits across the country to verify whether employers are doing their part to prevent worker illness and injury. A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) can act as your organization’s internal inspector, protecting worker health and safety while helping you meet OSHA requirements. A CMMS can prevent your company from paying steep fines by giving you the tools needed to implement a safety program and schedule safety-related tasks, such as fire alarms, drills, and evacuations.
CMMS systems play an essential role in ensuring that organizations are in compliance with OSHA regulations and are prepared for unannounced inspections. An effective CMMS links OSHA guidelines as well as operating and maintenance manuals to equipment records.
Automate Preventive Maintenance Tasks with a CMMS
CMMS software automates preventive maintenance tasks and improves the up time, performance, efficiency, and longevity of assets. Users can define preventive maintenance tasks and set up automatic reminders to ensure that maintenance technicians complete them.
Generating preventive maintenance tasks in a CMMS system reduces the frequency and severity of corrective maintenance, which means that there are fewer breakdowns and unexpected repairs. This leads to a safer work environment. By using preventive maintenance software to track work orders and record the history of each piece of equipment, maintenance departments can identify the underlying causes of equipment failure, foresee problems, and avoid repeat issues.
Provide OSHA Auditors with the Documentation They Want to See
A CMMS provides maintenance managers with strong preventive maintenance record keeping. They can maintain safety information about all assets, including emergency notes, procedures, and safety notes. A CMMS tells users what tasks have been performed on a piece of equipment, when they were done, who did them, and when the last inspection took place. Health and safety-related features that preventive maintenance program software may offer include the following:
- Input health and safety records for each employee
- Input safety training and skills for each employee
- Attach safety procedures and checklists to work orders
- Associate standard operating procedures with particular work orders, assets, or tasks
- Attach materials safety data to work orders or tasks
- Flag assets according to safety priority codes
If OSHA auditors pay an unexpected visit, maintenance managers can use a CMMS to generate timely reports sorted by maintenance technician, asset, safety standard, etc. CMMS software provides the backup documentation required to prove to an OSHA auditor that a safety task was performed on schedule and any incidents that may have occurred were not due to negligence. A CMMS program also gives users quick access to incident data logs and generates reports showing which safety-related tasks were completed over time and what steps have been taken to prevent future injuries.
Regardless of whether or not an organization must meet OSHA requirements, preventive maintenance scheduling and safety inspections are crucial to effective maintenance management. Properly addressing health and safety issues with maintenance software can reduce the risk of injury, cut costs related to worker illness and injury, and ensure compliance with OSHA regulations. Therefore, it’s important to select software that addresses inspections, incidents, and routine safety-related tasks. Although making health and safety a priority requires an upfront investment, CMMS software pays major dividends in the long run by recording, tracking, and managing key information.
Ensure that your organization can meet OSHA requirements by implementing DPSI’s preventive maintenance software. Contact us today for more information about our products and services.
