Manufacturing companies are very dangerous to work in, given the heavy use of large machinery and vehicles. The number of injuries occurring in manufacturing industries worldwide is not to be neglected. Health and safety managers are responsible for ensuring that hazards are dealt with, and risks are minimized.
Most of the incidents that can occur are related to falls, contact with machinery or objects, and lifting and handling. Given the high severity of these incidents, it is morally and legally obligatory for manufacturers to prevent the risk of harm to their employees. Environmental, Health, Safety, and Quality (EHSQ) management systems can help organizations do so.
You can always run a manufacturing business without EHSQ software, but you won’t be as efficient, and you will certainly make many mistakes. However, EHSQ can track regulatory data and requirements more carefully and help manufacturers reduce risks and ensure compliance. Moreover, it helps improve your safety and environmental performance and discover opportunities to reduce costs.
Below are a few benefits of applying EHSQ systems in your manufacturing company:
1. Reduce compliance costs & risks
As the saying goes “If you think compliance is expensive, try non-compliance.”
One of the most effective ways to reduce your compliance costs and ensure your company stays above board is to implement EHSQ software that automates time-consuming manual processes. The number of regulations you have to deal with won’t be reduced, but the process will be more efficient.
Furthermore, you will no longer have to remember to permit renewal deadlines for example or check spreadsheets every day to see what’s due, everything can be found in one location, all you have to do is log in to the system and take a look at your compliance calendar. You can assign duties more easily and organize your team’s work. You can also set alarms to remind you of tasks that are due soon or need your attention.
EHSQ helps ensure compliance tasks are completed on time, and this, in the long term, ends up saving you thousands of dollars in compliance costs and will have a positive impact on your manufacturing company’s reputation.
2. Reduce waste and improve efficiency
EHSQ can also help manufacturers save money in other ways because better data will result in less waste. You will be able to see resource usage compared to production amount in real-time, to identify opportunities for improved efficiency.
If you take chemical usage, for example, poor chemical inventory management is a huge source of unnecessary waste for manufacturers. Many chemicals can expire or go bad if not used. If you don’t manage your inventory effectively, you will have more disposable costs, introduce regulatory risks, and hurt your sustainability efforts. Moreover, buying back all these materials results in more costs.
EHSQ allows you to track your chemical inventory, which will contribute to reducing waste, and will also allow you to oversee day-to-day activities, such as storage and disposal, access permits and compliance data, and report on emissions related to chemicals.
Also by combining EHSQ software with the right sensors and IoT integration, you can see energy consumption, waste, emissions, and resource usage in real time.
3. Improve environmental performance
Meeting production demands while minimizing your company’s impact on the environment is not an easy job.
EHSQ can help you make more sustainable decisions. By knowing which process or equipment uses the most energy, for example, you can make decisions based on actual evidence, rather than on intuition or observation alone.
4. Streamline audits & inspections
When the pandemic hit, many manufacturers found themselves unable to complete regulatory scheduled audits and inspections due to stay-home orders, which made them incapable of visiting sites.
However, factories that were using EHSQ software were able to complete their work with no interruption. Using tablets or mobile phones, employees were able to capture images, audio, or videos during a walkthrough, and upload them to the centralized system to analyze them.
And even after the pandemic ends and restrictions are lifted, mobile apps will always reduce the need for expensive and environmentally harmful travel. Fewer days on the road equal more time spent focusing on initiatives that can improve the business.
5. Improve safety performance
Many manufacturers can tell that a safe factory is a productive factory. Manufacturers that place great importance on safety will be rewarded with better production and high profit.
To improve safety performance, manufacturing teams should have better insights into where, when, and why injuries are happening. Having reliable safety data in one place and making it accessible through dashboards, is how you eliminate injuries, by having decisions made based on a complete picture of risks.
And to make sure you are not missing anything, EHS allows workers at all levels to report issues and concerns, and this automates the process of notifying the right person, having an investigation, and managing a corrective and preventive action plan.
If you are a manufacturing company and found yourself to be interested in EHS, you may contact one of our experts or request a free demo.
