Jay Smith, Jr.
Executive Vice President
Lewellyn Technology, Inc.

1. Ask for resumes of the Electrical Engineers that will be working on your project. Not just what clients they have worked with, but what school did they go to, what is their experience, how long have they been working with the current company.

2. Get the PE number for the Professional Engineer that will be reviewing and overseeing your project, ensure he/she has had at least 10 years performing Arc Flash Assessments.

3. Research what the company actually does, how long have they been in business, what is their focus.

4. Ensure that there are no sub-contractors working on your project. From the data collection to the engineering analysis, you must ensure the work is not sub-contracted out. What will you do in 5 years when that sub-contractor is no longer affiliated with this vendor?

5. What is the business goal of the vendor? If their goal is not electrical safety and hazard mitigation then question how they can help you mitigate hazards.

In summary, an arc flash assessment is not something you buy off the shelf, then put back on the shelf when you are done. Implementing NFPA 70E will change the entire maintenance and safety culture of your company forever. You need a partner in safety, not just another vendor.

Jay Smith, Jr.
Executive Vice President
Lewellyn Technology, Inc.

Jay Smith, Jr.
Executive Vice President
Lewellyn Technology, Inc.

Join us on June 20th at 2pm (EST) for this free, informative look at Arc Flash and NFPA 70E. REGISTER TODAY

Featured Presenter: Daryn Lewellyn

Webinar Description:
Applying NFPA 70E to real-world situations can be confusing and at times overwhelming. In this webinar, Daryn Lewellyn equips you with the knowledge you need to keep your employees safe from electrical hazards. You will learn practical information you can begin to apply immediately at your workplace.

Objectives:

• Learn how OSHA and NFPA 70E work together.
• Learn what changes occur when implementing NFPA 70E at your facility.
• Learn the proper use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
• Learn safety-related work practices.
• Learn about the process of an Arc Flash Analysis from start to finish.

In this episode of the Workplace Safety Show, Daryn talks about his recent article which focuses on moving away from citation avoidance and moving toward injury prevention.

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In this episode of the Workplace Safety Show, Jay and Daryn discuss how arc flash hazards are not industry-specific – they pertain to any facility containing electrical equipment such as schools, colleges, grocery stores and more.

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Ask yourself, “When it comes to electrical hazards in the workplace, what is the minimum my facility has to do to comply with OSHA?” Many people will spend countless hours studying this question, reading OSHA regs, studying NFPA 70E, forming committees, getting the corporate attorney involved, hiring consultants, blah blah blah. The minimum isn’t so hard to figure out.

The minimum you have to achieve concerning electrical hazards in the workplace is to “Prevent Injuries Caused By Electrical Hazards.” That’s the minimum. So the real question needs to be “How Do We Prevent These Injuries.” 

Only when your thinking moves away from citation avoidance and toward injury prevention can we begin to protect people. As far as a hit to the bottom line, the citations are tiny compared to the cost of an injury. Electrical injuries are expensive. Let’s prevent those and not worry so much about a citation.

Daryn Lewellyn
President & Founder
Lewellyn Technology, Inc.

By Daryn Lewellyn
President & Founder
Lewellyn Technology, Inc.

I’m angry right now. I tell my employees to never write anything in anger because you’ll be sorry later when you’ve cooled off. I’m going to go ahead and write this in anger because I’m pretty sure I’ll still be angry later.

I just spent an hour on OSHA.gov reading news releases, weekly fatality reports, investigation summaries, statistics, etc. I also spent some time searching the internet for news stories on workplace accidents. Then I did the thing that always gets me the most, I began reading obituaries of those killed at work. These are not merely employees, these are people – people with families. Of course, it always lists the survivors. I always pay particular attention to the children and grandchildren. In this day and age, obituaries have been dramatically changed by technology. There are pictures on funeral home websites of those killed, and there are comments left from friends and family. These people were loved – this was a mother’s son, a little girl’s daddy. These people will be missed.

Frequently, I’ll spend an hour like this and I always start out saddened by the stories of tragedy brought on by workplace accidents, then that sadness turns to anger. Anger because if you look at the details of the incidents that resulted in injury or death so many of them could have been easily prevented. If you look at the fatality reports you can see that the knowledge, procedures, technology, and recognized best practices to prevent these injuries have been around for years. Years. Yet this still goes on.

There are employers out there that do care very much about the safety of their employees and do all they can to protect them. They don’t do it for financial reasons. They do it because it’s the right thing to do. I applaud you if you’re one of these employers. These companies can still have a tragic accident. This rant is not about you. It’s about those that didn’t make the effort in the first place.

Some of it is ignorance on the availability of solutions to these hazards or even that a hazard exists. That’s really no excuse. With the volumes of information on the internet, it’s hard to believe that in a few minutes you can’t find some answers that might save lives.

Some of it is the, “that won’t happen here”, mentality. It can happen anywhere. Just spend an hour as I just did and you’ll see lots of people who thought the same thing. Thinking that, “it won’t happen here” is just foolish. Don’t hang your hopes on that as a safety strategy.

Some of it is the belief that “we’re not sure if that regulation applies to us, in our state or industry, OSHA hasn’t really adopted that standard so we’ll wait.” Waiting for OSHA to adopt the latest fall protection standard, combustible dust standard, electrical standard, etc. before you take action might play well in the boardroom, but it doesn’t play well at the funeral home. Forget about the OSHA regulations, if you have an existing hazard and an organization has written a national consensus standard addressing that hazard, pull your head out of the sand and adopt that standard best that you can.

Recently, a potential client, a safety professional wanting to do what is right said, “the bean-counters (his word) say we’re not implementing a safety standard because going along with business as usual and having an accident or getting a citation is less expensive than implementing the standard.”

To start with, that is an awfully brave thing to say when you operate an adding machine and not a piece of industrial equipment. No offense is meant to CFO’s and accounting folks, they often are among the first to push for safety as they see the monumental costs associated with not doing safety well. But not everyone is on board with that thinking.

Secondly, he is probably wrong about the math. There have been numerous studies done that show safety is good for the bottom line long term. Safety makes good business sense in a lot of ways. The studies are out there and easy to find.

And lastly, you can’t justify that statement anywhere but the boardroom. It’s horrible anytime someone creates a balance sheet with money on one side and people on the other. Life’s too short for you to be remembered as the guy that saved a few bucks to help the bottom line next quarter, but someone died as a result. I saw Warren Buffet on TV last night. He said something like, “too many people worry too much about next quarter’s numbers, not enough are thinking about the lifetime of an investment.” Think longterm.

Sorry for the rant. And I was right, I’m still angry. I know as an employer myself, of employees that are out in facilities everyday facing hazards, it can be challenging. There is a bottom line I want you to think about. The bottom line is there is what’s right. The bottom line is we can easily prevent so many of these tragedies – let’s do it. The bottom line is that the information to accomplish this for so many hazards is out there and easy to do. The bottom line is the people running businesses of all sizes in this country are good people, the people with bottom line responsibility are good people, all I ask is that you consider these bottom lines that I have pointed out. Not just the bottom line reflecting the company’s profit. There is what’s right.

Watch Daryn and Jay discuss this article on the Workplace Safety Show:

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Jay Smith, Jr.
Executive Vice President
Lewellyn Technology, Inc.