SAFETY AUDIT

SAFETY AUDIT 

Oleh : Bayu Nurwinanto

Purpose

Establish a safety and health audit checklist for printed circuit board manufacturing facilities that will help facilities manage their safety and health obligations.

Scope

This audit checklist is designed to cover a facility’s compliance with major OSHA requirements

and a facility’s compliance with more general, routine requirements. Although this checklist will facilitate compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rules and regulations, the checklist is merely a guide and should not be used to guarantee legal compliance.

Methodology

OSHA requirements are triggered by specific workplace factors – the presence of certain machinery, chemicals and workplace exposures, as well as more general requirements that apply to most workplaces. It is recommended that auditors perform two difference inspections to capture these varying types of requirements. The first inspection checklist is geared toward assessing compliance with major OSHA requirements; the second checklist is geared toward assessing compliance with more general OSHA requirements. According to California OSHA, the following violations are typical at PWB facilities.

1. Miscellaneous electrical violations
2. Lack of written plans.
3. Absence of personal protective equipment.
4. Lack of inoperative or distant eye wash/deluge shower.
5. Violations involving fork lifts and bench grinders.
6. Noise exposures to routers and drills.
7. Tank safety/labeling.
8. Lack of monitoring for lead exposures near soldering operations.
9. Unguarded shafts, chain drives and belts.
10. Failure to check ventilation systems.

This audit program is designed to capture “typical” PWB violations and help members eliminate their occurrence or address them as soon as possible once they are identified.

STEP #1 (Determine Compliance Status)

Determine facilities’ compliance with major OSHA requirements.

STEP #2 (Conduct Facilty-Wide Safety Audit)

Walk-through facility and determine whether facility has achieved compliance with more general OSHA requirements.

STEP #3 (Correct all Potential Violations Identified )

The main benefit of an audit program is to identify potential violations so that facilities can correct them before they result in OSHA fines or penalties. Most importantly, however, timely correction will prevent injury to employees and ensure a productive and safe workplace.