Submitted by Steve Winicker.
LAST WEEKS SHOP ACTIVITY
The boiler was filled with water and small leaks chased. It appears that a few staybolts were driven up and some leaks in valves chased down. The goal for the next few weeks is to lap some valves and generally try to dry up some of the spots where water was issuing from places where it is not supposed to. No major issues were found. April 18th is the scheduled hydrostatic date. In the mean time we will be working on the problems we found this week.
UPCOMING ACTIVITIES
As noted above we will be working on the issues identified this week. Next weekend is the safety training. Hope to see most of you there.
SAFETY SENSE
Almost everyone has been guilty of speeding through a job. We forget, until it’s too late, that “hurry up can hurt”. In just about every instance, hurrying on the job does not do much to increase productivity. Usually, it is simply an easy way to get a job done get a tough job out of the way – or try to get off the job as soon as possible.
When we hurry on the job, we accomplish little more than to increase our chances of an unsafe act happening. Let’s look at some hurry up acts. Which ones have you caught yourself doing?
- Didn’t wear safety glasses because the job would only take a few minutes.
- Used the wrong ladder because the proper one was too far away.
- Didn’t use proper lockout tagout procedures because you could fix it yourself and wouldn’t have to bother anyone else.
- Climbed a ladder with tools stuck in your pocket, or in your hand, because you didn’t have a tool belt.
- Cut the grounding prong off a three-way ground wire plug because you didn’t have an adapter.
- Reached “just-a-little-bit-further” on the ladder so you didn’t have to get down and move it.
- Didn’t unplug a power tool before making adjustments because you would only have to plug it in again.
The list is endless. Do they sound familiar? Too familiar? Sometimes when you hurry, nothing bad happens. Other times there may be “near misses”, but eventually a serious injury will occur. It is only a matter of time. Is it really worth your eyesight, your limbs or even your life to save those few minutes?
When hurrying on the job, you don’t end up speeding up the work, you just speed up your chances of an accident.
Hurry up can hurt.
