5 Practical Steps to Implement a Lockout Tagout Program in Your Workplace

Lockout Tagout isolates hazardous energy before any maintenance work begins. Here are five practical steps to build a LOTO program that protects your workers.

Lockout Tagout, or LOTO, is one of the critical safety protocols every workplace with powered equipment needs. It ensures that equipment is properly shut down and hazardous energy is isolated before any maintenance or repair work begins, protecting workers from serious injury. This post walks through practical steps for putting LOTO in place.

What Lockout Tagout is

Lockout Tagout is a safety procedure used in industrial and commercial workplaces to isolate hazardous energy sources before maintenance or repair work is done. Those energy sources can be electrical, hydraulic, mechanical, pneumatic, or chemical, and each can cause injury or death if it is not handled correctly. The procedure involves shutting down the equipment, isolating the energy source, and then locking and tagging the equipment so it is not operated until the work is complete.

Why it matters

According to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, roughly 20 percent of workplace accidents are related to maintenance activities, and about 10 percent of those are due to inadequate LOTO procedures. In 2018, inadequate LOTO procedures contributed to 35 work-related fatalities in Canada. Those numbers are the case for getting this right.

Five steps to implement LOTO

1. Develop a LOTO program

A written LOTO program is the first step. It should set out the procedures and policies for applying LOTO in your workplace, along with the roles and responsibilities of employees and supervisors.

2. Train your employees

Proper training is essential. Workers need to understand the procedures and policies, identify energy sources, recognize hazardous energy, and follow the LOTO steps correctly.

3. Use LOTO devices

Lockout and tagout devices are core components of the procedure. Lockout devices physically prevent equipment from being operated, and tagout devices communicate the status of the equipment to anyone nearby.

4. Conduct regular audits

Regular audits confirm that procedures are being followed. An audit should review the LOTO procedures, confirm that employees are trained, and verify that LOTO devices are in good condition.

5. Learn from close calls and incidents

Real incidents show what happens when LOTO is skipped. In one Canadian manufacturing plant, a worker was injured when a machine that had not been properly locked out was unexpectedly turned on. In a Canadian sawmill, a worker was fatally injured under similar circumstances. Every near miss and incident should feed back into a stronger program.