Improving the material storage area


The operations of a work shop are achieved through the division of responsibilities among a large number of people. Problems that deal with safety, especially, are everyoneâ€™s problems. You canâ€™t say, â€œWeâ€™re busy now, letâ€™s wait until we reach a break in work,â€? and put it off. The person who discovers a dangerous situation must get the cooperation of all the others and take care of it as soon as possible.

Understanding the unsafe situation in the Materials storage Area.

It is the responsibility of concerned engineers to turn their work place into a safe place of storage with the reorganization method. A study of the unsafe situation revealed the following and corrective actions were taken to eliminate any dangerous trends..

Obvious problems: Obstructions in path and bad maintenance of material storage

1. Because the storage shelves for the steel bars are too near to the cabinet panel, there is no way to maintain a path.
2. The place for the shelves is a bad one, and there is no uniform way for storing the materials and some bars are just left on the ground.

Occurring losses: : Time lost looking for materials, strain on operations

1. Because the materials are placed in front of the cabinet panel, it is difficult to inspect it and the inspector tends to get careless and overlook bad electrical connections.
2. There are variances in the way the materials are handled and the standard storage operations are not followed.
3. Because it is difficult to use the storage shelves, maintenance becomes only a formality.

Causes of loss:

1. The storage shelves were placed in their present place without sufficient realization of the importance of the cabinet panel inspection.
2. There is no fixed place for materials according to their size and shape.
3. Because there is little concern for safety, there are no patrol checks.
4. Operation standards are not clear, so each person makes his own judgment as to where to put or how to take out materials.
5. All the workers are aware of the situation and concerned with it, but those in charge have not proposed any improvement plans based on fact.

Overall, the apparent cause seemed to be that the unsafe situation led to unsafe behavior by workers

Reorganization: New System Improvement Implementation Policy for Materials Storage Area

After getting clarification of the current situation the improvement implementation policy was set outlined below:

1. The electrician-in-charge will secure the path to the cabinet panel (how wide it should be, how it will be marked), and the amount of space necessary for inspection (secure the necessary square meters of space, how it will be marked)
2. The person in charge of long materials, such as the steel bars, will decide how to reorganize the materials, make shelf divisions, and how much space will be necessary around the storage shelves for taking out and putting in the materials in assigned levels, depth, width, space between posts, etc.
3. These two persons-in-charge will consult each other and make adjustments.
4. The conditions set will be observed by all, a person â€“in-charge appointed, and his responsibilities defined
When making up concrete â€œreorganizationâ€? policies, it is vital to seek the opinions and ask about the experience of workers at the workshop, so that as much information based on fact be gained as possible.