A helpful Tool: The Automotive Workshop Safety Checklist

What is an Automotive Workshop Safety Checklist?

An automotive workshop safety checklist is the perfect tool to help safety officers and inspectors carry out comprehensive safety audits in automotive workshops. Set out as a list of instructions and reminders, it’s designed to ensure that no activities, tasks, and safety checks are missed during the audit.

The aim of an automotive workshop safety checklist is twofold. It allows you to:

1. Make sure that the automotive workshop layout promotes productivity and efficiency, and
2. Ascertain whether the control measures, procedures, and practices that have been implemented in the workshop ensure the safety of everybody working in it.

In turn, this helps avoid injuries to workers, mechanics, and customers and prevent damage to expensive equipment and machinery.

In this article, the following points are explained:

1. The content of a comprehensive automotive workshop safety checklist

2. Benefits of using a digital automotive workshop safety checklist

3. Maintaining safety with a mobile app

The Content of a Comprehensive Automotive Workshop Safety Checklist

A comprehensive digital automotive workshop safety checklist will help you achieve all these benefits and spot opportunities for a more efficient automotive workshop layout. For example, checks that identify possible fire hazards will also help you declutter your workshop, improving your overall productivity.

Some of the areas our checklist will help you improve include:

1. OHSA – Occupational Health and Safety

Complying with OHSA requirements is a legal obligation for every business. Our checklist will help you make sure your policies are up to date, your safety procedures are correct, and that chemicals are safely stored. This part of the checklist can also be very helpful in identifying whether your employees and supervisors may require additional training.

Some of the checks in this section include:

• Does the organization have an OSHA Committee in place?
• Are workers wearing proper customized safety work apparel and footwear?
• Do all hazardous chemicals have their safety data sheets, or SDSs, available near where they are used?
• Are the requisite fire safety measures in place and the correct fire extinguishers prominently displayed and accessible?

2. General workshop layout, safety, and efficiency

This section will help you easily identify areas where your automotive workshop layout could be improved, where there are potentially dangerous working conditions, and how these can be remedied.

For example:

• Are all work areas clean, orderly, and properly organized, with no clutter, combustible material, or tools lying around?
• Are waste products like oil disposed of correctly? Is the equipment to contain spills available and easily accessible?
• Is the floor surface even, undamaged and non-slip even when contaminated or wet?
• Is proper storage provided with racking and shelves, so all parts, tools, equipment, air lines, hoses, and gas cylinders are secured and stored safely?

3. Signage and worker comfort

Creating a comfortable working environment isn’t just important to keep your employees safe, and it also boosts their productivity. From first aid and kitchen facilities to regular equipment checks, this section will help you provide a safe environment where each worker knows what is expected of them and the correct steps to follow if someone gets injured.

For example:

• Are no-smoking signs prominently displayed and enforced?
• Is the lighting provided of a high standard to ensure good illumination to work safely?
• Does the workshop have an approved first-aid kit that is easily accessible?
• Is proper eye-wash equipment available and accessible?
• Are all exits, ramps, and staircases marked, easily accessible, and unobstructed?

4. Workshop processes and procedures

Employees should get adequate breaks and be able to perform their daily tasks without holding uncomfortable positions for extended periods. This section of the checklist will help you identify ways to do this and keep unauthorized and untrained persons from getting hurt accidentally.

For example:

• Is the requisite isolation or disengaging procedure practiced when maintenance or cleaning is performed on equipment?
• Are emergency contact numbers clearly and prominently displayed in all areas?
• Are measures in place to prevent unauthorized persons from entering the workshop?
• Does the workshop have the requisite SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) for handling heavy, dangerous, or awkward items?

5. Tool and equipment safety and servicing

The typical automotive workshop contains various tools and machines that can be very dangerous when not used correctly. This part of our Automotive Workshop Safety Checklist will help you minimize risks wherever possible in a systematic manner. This also aids in record keeping and safety compliance.

For example:

• Are toolboxes mobile so they can easily be moved around the workshop?
• Are compressors and power tools regularly inspected, serviced and records kept?
• Are safety guards fitted to equipment like compressors, grinders, etc.?
• Are tire inflation cages provided, and is their use obligatory?
• Are all ladders stable, in good repair, and have an adequate industrial load rating?

Benefits of using a digital automotive workshop safety checklist

The benefits of using a digital checklist for a safety inspection in an automotive workshop (rather than a pen-and-paper one) are significant and definitely worth considering. First and foremost, it makes your automotive workshop a safer place for both workers and customers.

Completing a digital automotive workshop safety checklist on a mobile device reduces workshop clutter and is quicker to do. In addition, it protects the information better than having pieces of paper lying around.

• Templates and reports can be generated immediately and rolled out to update the entire team.
• Revising and updating them in real-time is quicker and easier. This also means that internal and external safety standards are better complied with.
• It provides automatic data documentation, as all inspection data is automatically documented and immediately accessible.
• Generating mobile alerts, reminders, and updates ensures efficiency.
• A digital automotive workshop safety checklist saves time, space, and money, creating a more productive work environment.

Maintaining safety in the automotive workshop with a mobile app

Ensuring safety in the workplace is one of the most important tasks for owners of automotive repair shops, as in other industries. Considering the multitude of hazards that mechanics, technicians, and even customers face daily, all possible safety measures must be taken and consistently implemented to minimize the risk of injury during daily operations.

A mobile inspection app like Lumiform's allows owners and workers to end paperwork in the automotive workshop. The digital tool will enable them to fill out inspection forms and checklists right on the spot, report discovered incidents immediately, and track their implementation through the dashboard. Accessing and securing documents and critical findings from inspections is made much more manageable.

With Lumiform's app, automotive workshop owners, mechanics, and technicians can benefit from the following features during automotive workshop safety inspections every day:

• Access ready-to-use inspection checklists from the template library or easily convert existing paper templates to digital format using the intuitive form builder.
• Perform paperless inspections via smartphone or tablet, anytime, anywhere, even when offline. Inspection data is automatically saved and uploaded to your workshop's Lumiform account once you are reconnected to the internet.
• Take photos during the inspection and annotate them instantly to create a descriptive report.
• Automatically generate professional reports that can be sent to staff immediately after the inspection is complete, saving time and money and streamlining processes.
• Still assign corrective actions from the app if safety violations are identified during the inspection. Energy and time are saved by having the team collaborate via the app to resolve issues.
• All inspection data is securely stored in the cloud, making it viewable only by authorized users.