What Is an Inspection Checklist?
Safety is a critical element of an efficient and productive workplace. A safe environment gives workers the confidence to perform their tasks. As a result, productivity and efficiency increase. And to help enforce and maintain workplace safety is by using inspection checklists.
These inspection forms also function as a reminder for workers and supervisors to stay vigilant. If a job tends to be repetitive, people become lax thinking that they have already mastered what they are doing. During these unguarded moments, injuries and accidents occur.
By creating a workplace safety program and training workers to identify and correct risks, the probability of work accidents and injuries also decreases.
Aside from promoting safety, inspection sheets also help organizations comply with safety regulations.
This article covers the following topics:
1. What are the different types of inspections?
2. What are the steps of a successful safety inspection?
3. A digital tool for inspection checklists
What are the different types of inspections?
Workplace inspections are one of the preventive measures against unsafe conditions in the workplace. And since the work environment varies from industry to industry, there are also different types of inspections and checklists.
General Inspections
These inspections evaluate the whole workplace and work practices. They are conducted on a regular basis, depending on the risk and situation. It could happen on an annual or quarterly basis. The main goal of a general inspection is to identify areas that need improvement.
Regulatory Inspections
These are conducted in certain areas of the workplace by various regulatory agencies, like OSHA. The inspections ensure that the workplace complies with all the safety regulations. Any compliance gaps are recorded to ensure that corrective actions are taken.
Safety and Risks Inspections
These inspections are done to identify potential and existing hazards in the workplace and their underlying causes. By creating a safer workplace, you do not just protect your workers but also build your reputation. Furthermore, the penalties you have to pay for non-compliance are expensive.
Equipment Inspections
As the name suggests, these are inspections that check the safety of tools, machinery or equipment, and vehicles. These can either be conducted before every use of the equipment or scheduled based on the manufacturer’s manual.
Equipment inspections are conducted by workers before they use the equipment or tools. Preventive maintenance inspections, however, are done to ensure the tools meet industry standards.
Local Area Inspections
These inspections are conducted in areas where unsafe working conditions still persist. They are generally conducted annually but the frequency of these inspections depends on the risk involved.
The person conducting the inspection is also required to take corrective actions and inform the supervisor. The supervisor should, then, ensure that the hazard will be eliminated by taking the right corrective action.
What are the steps of a successful safety inspection?
There are a number of inspections to ensure a safe workplace. However, these five steps ensure a successful inspection:
Plan and Schedule
There are no specific rules on how often an inspection should be conducted. Regulated standards, however, state that it should be done at reasonable intervals. The reason for this lack of clarity is that each workplace and its risks are different. For example, some work areas need a monthly inspection but high-risk areas need more frequent inspections until safety is achieved.
Prepare
Having trained and experienced inspectors ensure that potential hazards are identified and corrective actions are implemented. Certain organizations provide training and education for individuals who want to become safety inspectors.
Moreover, inspectors should be aware of the current safety laws and legal requirements.
Implement
The main goal of an inspection is to identify not only the risk factors but also the underlying causes of those hazards that might cause injuries and accidents. These include the following:
- Tools, machinery, and equipment
- Enclosed spaces
- Handling and storage of hazardous chemicals in the workplace
- Ineffective procedures that might cause accidents or injuries
Inspectors need to be fully aware of all the potential hazards. They should also talk to workers and supervisors if there are other safety concerns they might have.
Document
Inspection sheets should be used to record the hazards they discovered in the workplace. It should also have the steps taken to address the hazards. The results should include the following:
- Areas that have been inspected
- Time and date of the checkup
- The inspection team
- Areas, processes, and equipment that are potential hazards
- Recommendations to address the problems
Follow-up
This is the most essential part of the evaluation. After identifying and addressing the hazards, the employer should implement the recommendations given by the inspectors. Without implementation, all the other steps will fall.
A digital tool for inspection checklists
Inspection sheets are an important part of occupational health and safety. They should therefore be carried out carefully and with the best possible equipment.
With Lumiform’s mobile app, any type of inspection can be easily performed using a tablet or smartphone – online or offline. The desktop software is used to create checklists and evaluate the data collected on site. This significantly reduces the risk of quality losses, industrial accidents, documentation errors and damage to reputation.
Constantly increasing legal requirements for the documentation of processes can easily be met with the digital application. Every user is guided by the system through all documentation processes, which is almost error-free. If the hazard potential at the workplace increases, the checklist for inspections can be easily adapted using the flexible form module.
Further advantages of a inspection with digital checklist:
- Faster reporting through automatically generated reports – saves the complete follow-up work.
- Comprehensive analyses save time and uncover dangers in the company more quickly in order to continuously improve protective measures.
- Depending on the application, operational inspections are carried out about 30%-50% faster than with strong equipment.
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