All employees, upon observing a machine or piece of equipment which is locked out to perform servicing or maintenance shall not attempt to start, energize or use that machine or equipment. All equipment shall be locked out or tagged out to protect against accidental or inadvertent operation when such operation could cause injury to personnel. Do not attempt to operate any switch, valve, or any energy isolating device where it is locked or tagged out. OSHA requires that retraining be done when there are changes in equipment, job assignment, or procedures, or when an audit shows deficiencies with procedure or the employer feels the procedures should be reviewed. The OSHA standard calls for periodic inspections or audits which must be done by an authorized employee who does not use the energy control procedure being inspected.
All audits are to be documented and kept for record.
Procedure Equipment Shutdown and Isolation 1. Notify the immediate supervisor and all affected employees that you are about to start a lockout procedure. Locate all energy sources that power the piece of equipment to be serviced. Always look for hidden energy sources. Some machines have more that one source of power, therefore, you must make sure you know the machine and all the power sources involved.