Friday, March 28, 2014

Green Tape on All 3-Pronged Electrical Tools & Extension Cords as of 4/1/14!

Good morning to all I.D.I. employees:

All Safety Coordinators should have been provided a roll of green electrical tape. We begin a new quarter on 4/1/14 for our Assured Grounding Program. To help ensure we are in compliance with safety regulations and for the safety of our employees, we need your help by inspecting, testing and color-coding with green tape all 3-pronged electrical tools and extension cords. All electrical tools and cords need to be visually inspected. If you see any defects in the cords such as bare wires, severe kinks, missing or damaged ground prong, the cord pulling away from the plug end-housing, etc., then that tool or cord would need to be immediately removed from service and reported to your lead field supervisor. If your tool/cord passes the visual inspection, your next step is to test the cord with a receptacle tester. First, you should test the oulet that you will be plugging your cord into to ensure that it is properly wired. You should see 2 yellow lights lit up on your tester and the red light should be off. This means the outlet is working appropriately. Next, plug your cord into the outlet and then test the cord with the receptacle tester. Again, you should see the same light pattern as mentioned above and this would mean the cord passed the test and it is good and safe to use. Any other light pattern means that there is a problem with the cord and the cord needs to be removed from service and reported to your lead person. If the cord passes the visual inspection and the cord tester test, you should then remove the previous quarter's white electrical tape and install the green electrical tape about 1" down from both plug ends. Your cord is now in compliance with our 2nd quarter Assured Grounding Program. The green tape shall remain in place from 4/1/14 through 6/30/14. You are not quite done yet! You now need to visually inspect all electrical cords and tools on a daily basis and if any defects are found, the cord needs to be immediately removed from service.

Thank you for taking the time to ensure your electrical tools and cords are in safe working order. Your actions may prevent one of our family members from sustaining an electrical shock type injury or worse yet, an electrocution. If you have any questions regarding our Assured Grounding Program, please call our Safety Director, Peter Graham, at (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Baker Scaffold Wheels & What To Do!

Good afternoon to all I.D.I. employees,
 
Your new Field Safety Committee is off to a great start with identifying a few safety matters that we are addressing.  The committee advised that there are on occasions, times when they are working at a job site and the task calls for a baker scaffold.  While on the ground they set up a baker scaffold and lock all 4 baker scaffold wheels.  Then when they mount onto the scaffold, the additional weight causes a baker scaffold wheel to come unlocked.   

Our warehouse manager oversees the task of all of our equipment being inspected for safety and maintained before equipment gets sent out into the field and he does an awesome job with this.  If defective equipment is found, it is repaired if it can be without changing the structural integrity of the equipment and if it can’t be repaired, the equipment gets destroyed.   Our baker scaffold wheels and locking mechanisms are included with what gets inspected at the shop.  Now there are times when a baker scaffold is transferred from a job site directly to another job site.  Our drivers will inspect the equipment when making the transfer, but, out in the field, an employee might find that a baker scaffold wheel unlocks when weight is placed upon the baker scaffold.  This scenario is hard to always uncover.

We feel there is a simple fix and we just need your help and communication.  At our last volunteer quarterly safety meeting held in February, 2014, one of the training topics was specifically on baker scaffold safety and we discussed and trained on inspecting baker scaffolds and all its components.  If you are using a baker scaffold and have a wheel or wheels where the brakes won’t lock or stay locked when occupied, you need to remove that wheel from service.  Then, simply notify your Superintendent and/or our Safety Director and we will provide you with a baker scaffold wheel or wheels with working locks. 
 
We thank the Field Safety Committee for bringing this to our attention.  This is one of the exact reasons why we have the field safety committee; to help uncover hidden potential hazards and to help provide solutions. 
 
Great job Field Safety Committee – (Brian Vicicondi, Rafael Nunez, Ricardo Villagomez, Dennis Johnson & Keith Rehn)
 
If you have any questions about this at all, you are encouraged to call our Safety Director, Peter at (847) 417-1689. 

Have a Safe Day!