AX Control, Inc.

Top OSHA Violations–and How to Avoid Them in 2021

Top OSHA violations don’t change much from year to year. But you can take steps now to keep your employees safe.

When I was in my mid-twenties, I ran an in-store optical lab for one of the big national “in an hour” eyeglass chains. It was a fun but demanding job. Sometimes the lab was understaffed, and meeting those hour deadlines got tight.

One day, as I was trying to cut a few seconds off the time grinding a lens, I reached into the curve generator to move the lens to the next machine while the diamond cutting blade was still spinning–something I knew we weren’t supposed to do–and heard and felt a sudden ppzzt! as the spinning blade made contact.

Luckily for me (maybe), the blade had hit my diamond engagement ring instead of my hand, ruining the stone.

I never reached into the moving machine again. I also stopped wearing jewelry to work.

M Kenney–tech writer, AX Control

Provide Safety for Your Employees

No matter what industry your manufacturing plant is part of, providing for the safety of your employees has to be a top priority. Compliance with safety regulations prevents your workforce from accident or injury. It also keeps you from dealing with costly OSHA violations and with their ramifications, which often mean expensive shutdowns.

Proper training and implementation will help you avoid violations. It’s that simple.

But violations are also simple for compliance officers to spot. In fact, most of the top 2020 violations have been leading OSHA violations for years, some for over a decade.

Augmented Reality in Manufacturing: How it Will Change the Industry

You’ve already been interacting with AR on a regular basis…..

Augmented Reality in manufacturing and in other sectors is becoming more common.

For example, when you sit down to watch the NFL playoffs, pay attention to those first-down markers, scrimmage lines, and text or images hovering just above the field. You know the ones I’m talking about–those little extra helpers that make it that much easier to follow the game and to know whether Tyreek Hill managed to get the first down (I mean–c’mon: he’s got Mahomes passing to him. You know he did.)

Maybe without even realizing it, you’ve been interacting with Augmented Reality (AR) technology each and every time you’ve lined up your remotes (or whatever good luck tradition rules in your house) and rooted for your favorite team. NFL broadcasts show just how easy it is to implement and interact with AR. It might also explain why you should be using this technology in your manufacturing plant if you’re not already.

Officials on an NFL field. Augmented Reality is used to help viewers watching the NFL. — “Penalty Flag – Kansas City Chiefs v Jacksonville Jaguars – Officials – 2016” by Dis da fi we is licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

Green Manufacturing: Changes for a Better 2021

Manufacturers are looking to green technologies to lessen the impact on the environment and on their bottom line.

As this year comes to an end and we look toward the new one (as well as a new decade!), you may be making decisions on changes that will impact your bottom line in 2021. One of the most impactful ways to do this is by considering green manufacturing processes and practices. Not only will these changes create a smaller imprint on the Earth’s energy reserves and limited resources, but they will also likely save you money, too.

The question of how to make manufacturing more eco-friendly is going to be a big one in the coming decades, especially as end-users increasingly demand products with transparent supply chains and smaller ecological footprints.

Here is a list of five changes to consider.

Consider Technological Advances

Over the last few years, several new technologies have been introduced to manufacturing that allows design and prototyping to happen off the manufacturing floor. Using VR or AR technologies to evaluate designs or process changes will help limit waste in the real-world environment. These technologies allow your design team to start over or back up in their design process without any lost product.

Once a digital design has been perfected and analyzed on your virtual platform, you can move it to real-world prototyping, and then to your manufacturing line. Other advances like machine learning can improve your plant’s workflow by limiting downtime, improving your supply chain, and suggesting better use of human labor.

Go Paperless to Help the Environment

Companies like Tesla–the king of green manufacturers–have thrived with paperless environments, relying instead on sets of visual work instructions. This change creates a significant environmental impact, but more importantly, it tends to improve quality and boost productivity. When instructions are relayed electronically, there’s no chance a worker will accidentally pull from an incorrect revision or out-of-date work order since these disappear with every update. Fewer mistakes mean less wasted material and lower scrap rate; that lower scrap rate will have a significant impact on your costs.