What is it?
LOTO processes are executed by employees, mainly by those who are involved with equipment maintenace operations. It is a safety procedure that aims to ensure that no equipment contains any kind of “hazardous energy” that may cause some kind of harm to workers, such as chemical, hydraulical, electrical, pneumatic and others.
The safety procedure can be executed by authorized employees that follow every step of a lockout/tagout procedure, in order to enable any equipment from presenting a danger that may cause injuries or death.
How is it implemented?
The process starts by understanding equipment risk behaviors regarding, for example, their energy, toxicity and temperatures. Then, the machine is shut down and isolated from the source of danger. Lockout/tagout are executed to finally find residual residues.
There are 6 mandatory steps to execute a correct LOTO process, and that will ensure an unexistent risk for operational teams. These steps are:
- Isolate potential sunstances sources.
- Lockout/tagout the respective equipment.
- Eliminate the dangerous substances that may still be stored.
- Verify that the substances are correctly isolated.
- LOTO all isolation points detected as a potential source of hazardous energy.
- Test the success by reactivating the equipment.
- Perform the task that was previously required for that equipment.
As a safety procedure, LOTO also includes requirements to apply after the maintenance task execution, which include: the work has to be completed, and all tools witdraw from the workplace, and guarantee the machine safety before restaring to use it.
The process can be digitized in a platform to guarantee that workers have the most important information near them, as well as visual guidance tools. Since it is a process that often translate into one-man operations, and that may be dangerous, by providing exact guidance with visual support to workers, it will be easier to reduce human error and potential dangeours.
With the navigation support of Augmented Reality (AR), workers become more aware of their environment. The technology guides workers with IoT contextual information that shows dangerous areas, guiding workers to the right place avoiding dangerous equipment or zones.
Benefits
More awareness
Increased safety
Increased efficiency
Workers are more prepared and more aware of the process by being supported by workflows and inputs on their own devices, that they can easily consult near the equipment tha needs a LOTO procedure. Additionally, with IoT information, it is easier to understand equipment behaviours, which can be a strong indicator of the degree of “Hazardous energy” that may be stored in it. Both technologies, reduce the possibility of workers executing a dangerous move that may cause them injuries.
How can we help?
With our technology, it becomes possible to digitize processes, and organize specific workflows to conceed execution support to workers. Additionally, our app includes a specific feature in which workers’ safety is confirmed with regular health verification checkpoints. This features highly reduce the risk of taking too long to react to unexpected situations, that may happen to the team. Our AR app is compatible with both HoloLens and Smartphone devices. It becomes easier to provide access to visual guidance and contextual information to ny team member.