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Make Construction Safety a Priority Everyone knows that construction sites can be very dangerous. The more you know about the types of danger you will face, however, will help you to take steps toward keeping everyone safe. Look over the following 10 safety facts and see what you can learn about how to improve the overall safety of your facility. In addition to using this information to help you to make safety improvements, you can also show these items to the workers at any site so they can be more aware. Some of these facts may surprise people, and cause them to be more aware of their surroundings. According to OSHA, "Nearly 6.5 million people work at approximately 252,000 construction sites across the nation on any given day. The fatal injury rate for the construction industry is higher than the national average in this category for all industries." 10 Tips to Improve Construction Safety Fact #1 - Losing your Load On construction sites people use machines to lift and move all sorts of things on a regular basis. Whether it is lifting wood or metal beams, or you are digging out dirt to prepare to lay a foundation, this is an essential part of most jobs. The vast majority of times this type of activity goes very smoothly and the jobs are completed without incident. The fact is, however, that having loads come loose while in transit is actually a leading cause of injury on construction sites. You need to keep in mind that even if you don't lose the entire load, people can be severely injured from even one thing falling out of a crane or back hoe. With this in mind, people working on site need to know to stay well away from this machinery, and the machine operators need to know to avoid moving items when people are nearby. Fact #2 - Entering and Leaving Heavy Machinery Another safety issue related to working with heavy machinery is related to operators getting on and off of the rigs that they will be working on. While this is something that they of

An arc flash is a dangerous situation in which an electrical current leaves its intended path and leaps through the air from one conducting source to another, or even sometimes the ground. Many times the transfer of electrical energy resembles and arc, hence the term arc flash. However, it is important to never underestimate the power behind an arc flash. An arc flash can vaporize metals, plastics, and even flesh. Many times arc flashes cause irreversible damage and harm to people and surrounding objects. In fact, most people injured in arc flash situations often never return to the same quality of life due to severe injury stemming from heat and burns. The heat of an arc flash has been calculated to be near 35,000 degrees Fahrenheit which is four times as hot as the sun's surface! What Causes an Arc Flash? There are many possible contributors towards an arc flash, which makes it difficult to really fully stop one from occurring. Some common culprits that may add towards the probability of an arc flash include dust, condensation, corrosion, material failure, faulty construction, dropping a tool, or simply accidental touching. National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Boundaries In an attempt to help protect employees and visitors from electrically charged equipment possible of creating arch flashes, certain safety boundaries have been put into place by the NFPA. The boundary resembles a target and in the middle is the energized equipment, and then there are four outer rings around the center with each ring labeled and specified for safety. The first ring, closest to the center (energized equipment) is called the prohibited approach boundary, then the next ring further out is called the restricted approach boundary, the next ring is called the limited approach boundary, and the furthest ring out from the center is called the flash protection boundary. Let's quickly describe each boundary. Prohibited Approach: Being within this boundary during an arc flash

How to increase strength and mobility safely If you've ever suffered a painful injury at work, you're not alone. Injuries occurring at the workplace are more common than you might think, and are not restricted to stuntmen and other daredevils. According to data compiled by Safe Work Australia in 2010, 40% of situations where compensation is paid out to employees involve joint pain or strains of joints. Think safety in the workplace top ten violationsExperiencing a workplace injury can be extremely frustrating, especially when your recovery period seems interminable. Many times, you might feel like you're ready to function as you did before only to come to the painful realization that you haven't quite recovered fully. Allowing sufficient time for rest and recovery is absolutely essential. Other than getting regular exercise involving lots of strengthening and stretching that can toughen the injured area without straining it, there are several rules you should observe when trying to heal. Manage your movement plan During your recovery, it is important that you not do anything that can aggravate the injury or strain the injured area. Have a doctor issue a Certificate of Capacity clearly and comprehensively detailing all tasks and movements you should be exempted from doing or that should be restricted upon your return to work. Take things slowly It can be immeasurably frustrating to not be able to do things that you were able to do with ease pre-injury. Instead of harping on what you cannot do, focus on what you can do. Remain positive and perform the tasks you can do as best you can. Seek the support of your co-workers for tasks that your injury makes difficult for you to undertake. Don't push through the pain Other than medication that has been prescribed by the doctor responsible for treating your injuries, avoid any other medication including painkillers or multi-medication. Such medication may have strong side effects, particularly in your vulnerab

Ron Pereira over at the LSSAcademy.com offered a really cool video that pits regular mass production vs. one piece flow, and his simulation produced a time savings with the one piece flow. In his video, what I found to be as interesting as his presented material were the comments at the bottom by professionals in manufacturing. They all seemed to think that one piece flow definitely has its place, and that it CAN be more efficient in certain contexts, but most of them also pointed out that, from a batch processing point of view, one piece flow doesn't save any time when it comes to actually delivering the product to customers if the customers are in the same place. For example, if you are folding, stuffing, and stamping envelopes, but they all have to go to the same post office to be mailed, there isn't really enough of a time saving compared to the possible amount of trips to the post office under a per piece system. Someone else also mentioned the idea of spreading each step in the one-piece flow out to several people vs. to one person, and the savings in time would not be outweighed necessarily by the fact that, now, several people are needing to be paid, instead of the one person. Either way, I think, under certain circumstances (like building full sized dump trucks with different customers), one piece flow is definitely a time saver and waste reducer than building a ton of dump trucks and running the risk of some of them not being sold. Plus, envelopes are way easier to simulate than building a bunch of dump trucks.

Improve Organization and Efficiency with Industrial Labeling Industrial labeling is an essential activity in any facility, and for many different reasons. For example, it can help to improve safety as well as organization and even efficiency. In fact, proper labeling can benefit almost every measurable area of the facility. If you don't already have a proactive labeling policy within your facility, look at the following ten points to see why it is so important. 1. Regulatory Compliance One of the most important reasons why you need to focus on proper industrial labeling is that it is often required by organizations like OSHA. If you are using certain hazardous chemicals, for example, you will need to have the containers labeled using the proper industry standards. In addition, you must put these types of labels on any products that contain these chemicals before you ship them out. There may be other regulations where you need to have proper labeling too. Machines and pipes that use or transport hazardous items will often need to be properly labeled. Even if it is just steam that is being transported, you should likely have it clearly noted so nobody accidently burns themselves while working in the area. 2. Tracking Maintenance Tasks Many facilities will use industrial labeling to distinguish different machines or vehicles within the facility. This is much easier to use than checking the VIN or serial number each time, and it can make scheduling the maintenance of these items much easier. If you have an industrial label maker, you can print off a label that has a bar code or other easily identify mark. This can then be scanned by the maintenance team every time they change the oil or perform any other type of work. This can help them to log all the activities they have done, and even make it so all their activities are tracked through computer programs. However you decide to actually track and store the information, you will find that having each machine ta

Believe it or not customer satisfaction is somewhat of a new focus within the business industry. For many years the main focus of business was based upon staying in the black, increasing sales, growing business visibility and making a product or supplying a service that is needed or valued. However, with the changing times of our variable economy, there has been a major shift in the business mindset. Instead of focusing inward on the business and its growth and financial aspects, many companies have chosen to move their focus outward towards the satisfaction of the customer. With this innovative mindset, companies are really trying to put customer satisfaction above all else. It is actually much easier to keep customers when they are satisfied with the product or service provided than it is to go out and attain new customers. In fact, new figures estimate that it will cost a company 5 to 8 times more money to reach out and attain a new customer than to just keep a current customer satisfied. Furthermore, if a customer is satisfied with a product they will often recommend or talk highly of the product to others within the industry as well. Word of mouth is a very powerful tool during this age of online communication. With the click of a button, a person can "like" or "recommend" a product to many other people on his or her communication database.

"Green Machine" (photo courtesyof Gulfcoastgreenenergy.com) I read a really neat article today on the Gulf Cost Green Energy website, titled "Going Green: The Practical Payoffs of Geothermal Energy," that reported about a guy in Texas named Loy Sneary who has a machine that can convert wasted energy from steam stacks, boilers, and oil wells. According to Mr. Sneary, we waste almost 60% of the energy we use to create heat or electricity. His machine is kind of like a fancy heat pump/steam generator, and just maximizes energy through heat induction between heated air or water and a refrigerant that converts to pressurized steam inside a coil that is then used to generate electricity-all without any emissions. Frankly, I'm not a scientist or even an alternative energy expert, but it sounds reasonably logical. They rigged it up at Texas A&M apparently, and it all just worked out peachy. I'm all for greener alternative forms of energy, and this certainly seems to take the cake for that. I will certainly follow this guy's development of this technology. My only concern is that this article doesn't have too much written up on it-maybe it's hokey, or maybe it's because it's being repressed. Or, it just hasn't had anything written up on it, yet. (conspiracy theories anybody?)

Industrial color codes To minimize workplace injuries and accidents requires the combined input of both the employer and the employees. There are tens of hazards lurking everywhere within the organization and while it is not possible to cover every angle, properly informing the relevant persons of the potential hazards can go a long way towards ensuring safety. Workplace safety is a great concern and immense regulations have been put into place and they are strictly enforced. These regulations have also ensured that the workers clearly understand their responsibilities and their rights. The employer has a huge responsibility of enforcing the set standards and ensuring safety to all. This can be achieved through a number of ways, including using industrial color codes and other appropriate marking and signs. Involving the staff Workers have a major stake in the safety of the organization and they will determine the success of any safety regulations put in place. It is hence important that they be involved right from the start and they be adequately trained to understand the purpose and meaning of each industrial color code and marking used. Sticking to simple and easily understandable colors and signs

The process of pipe labeling is essential to minimize hazards within an industrial work environment. Pipes may contain a variety of different substances such flammable liquids, pressurized liquids, acids, wastes, water, etc. Pipes can extend for miles within industrial work settings and even though some pipes may not contain hazardous substances, it is still imperative to identify the contents within the pipes as well as the directional flow and pressure within the pipes. What is ANSI Color Coding? ANSI or American National Standards Institute is a privately owned, non-profit organization that is involved with creating consensus standards regarding workplace safety. In order to help ensure safety and the proper labeling of pipes, ANSI along with ASME (American Society of Testing and Materials) have developed a color coding system so the contents of pipes can be quickly and easily identified. The newest version of the ANSI Color Coding guide from 2007 features the use of six colors, versus the old version which focused primarily upon the use of four colors. The related hazards and colors are as follows: Hazard Colors Fire Quenching Fluids Red Background with White Lettering Corrosive & Toxic Fluids Orange Background with Black Lettering Flammable Liquids Yellow Background with Black Lettering Combustible Liquids Brown Background with White Lettering Potable, Cooling, Boiler, Water Green Background with White Lettering Compressed Air Blue Background with White Lettering In addition to the above six color codes, ANSI has also identified four other colors that may be utilized at the discretion of the user for other fluids that do not meet the specifications of the above content colors. The other colors are as follows: User Discretion Purple Background with White Lettering User Discretion White Background with Black Lettering User Discretion Gray Background with White Lettering User Discretion Black Background with White Lettering Pipe Label Placement In addition

By Michelle Graham on February 9, 2017 Approaching an Infertility problem needs to be met in a series of steps. If we look to nature to discover why infertility prevails in populations we find an increase in infertility when there is a famine of sufficient nutrients for that population. The birth rate goes down dramatically in response to the lack of sufficient nutrient resources in the environment. This is a natural response to preserve the strength of each species. Lack of essential nutrients ultimately contributes to birth defects, so Nature protects the species by preventing reproduction until the nutrient deficiency has been addressed.

Digital Transformation has become a necessity for enterprises in every vertical, sector and industry. Software is indeed eating the world and there is no industry that cannot ignore the burning necessity of transforming to a software driven organization. However, the road to digital transformation is long, unpaved and full of dangers. It is a road that most enterprises that are embarking on it have never encountered. These organizations realize that their ultimate survival depends on navigating this road but are hesitant, unsure and scared because this transformation requires competencies, culture and an approach that is alien and unknown. Though, traditional IT departments have always been part of such organizations, they have always been looked upon as plumbing that ultimately is only relevant in the background to keep the lights on. Faced with impending doom, organizations have no choice but to rethink their IT. This is not simply an initiative in the IT team. CEOs and CFOs need to rethink what and how software can and will disrupt their companies. Business and IT need to come together to have a joint software driven experience strategy and needs to be prioritized by the CEO and funded, for the long term by the CFO. Do you need to think about a Digital Transformation strategy? If you answer YES to any of the questions below, you should. Are your teams, data, and systems fragmented? Are your key processes fragmented, manual? (for example, Onboarding, Decision Making, Incident Management, Support) Is your data of low-quality data (customer profile, transactions, glossary, documents) Is your regulatory compliance inconsistent and more a matter of luck than planning? Could your customer relationship, lifecycle, performance management be better? Could the information flow in your organization be matured? Do you have a weak understanding of internal and external events and how they impact your business?

Success with AI is heavily influenced by the data maturity of an organization i.e. their ability to procure, clean, curate, store and analyze data to power value generating applications. A data-mature enterprise know what data it has, knows what the data means and can ensure that the data is accessible to whoever needs it. Unfortunately, the past few years, driven by the big data hype, have encouraged enterprises to focus on updating their data infrastructure to leverage new big data technologies. With a lot more data now available, enterprises already stuck with massive data storage costs, are being forced to choose between storing data that might eventually be useful for stabilizing, if not reducing their storage costs.

The cutting edge platforms for today will be the commoditized platforms of tomorrow. As the technology matures and evolves, the previous generation of technology becomes easier to build and deploy enabling a rush of vendors to capitalize on it by making it accessible to the largest possible customer base. This puts enterprises in the nontechnology sectors in an awkward position. Often not ready to consume the latest and greatest technology due to parts of their stack unable to leverage new technology and requiring upgrade to and deployment of the stepping stone technology, these enterprises have to choose between vendor lock-in in a multi-year software and service contract or risk building and implementing a version of the older technology in-house. Business Drivers of Infrastructure-as-a-Service The biggest risk in building technology platforms in-house is the risk of commoditization. The argument played out with the debate over internal vs. public clouds. Initially, enterprises were hesitant to leverage public clouds with several of them opting to build internal, private clouds. Building a cloud is hard. Operating and maintaining a cloud is even harder. Ensuring that the cloud is running on and leveraging the best in class technology requires dedication to the cause. This is often missing in non-technology enterprises by design given they are driven by different and separate business drivers and considerations. A cloud service provider is motivated to ensure the best in class service and technology because that drives revenue for them. An enterprise whose main business is not offering cloud or software services will not be motivated by the same drivers and thus there will be an inherent difference in their approach and success with building and delivering an internal cloud. Business Drivers for Platform-as-a-Service The same argument (public vs private clouds) applies to platforms. Building the best in class platforms that offer the ability to develop cuttin

Sentiment, Sentiment Analysis, Sentiment Tracking have become a hot topic with multiple 'AI' startups focussing on providing sentiment driven insights to enterprises. The number of such startups points to the potential that enterprises see in Sentiment analysis and the impact it has on how the enterprise plans, operates, executes and delivers value. Sentiment Analysis is process of extracting sentiment (emotion or feelings) captured in signals that are embedded in various types of media such as print, text, audio, video, images etc. For example, if a reporter submits a report on a particular enterprise, the sentiment embedded in the article can point to how excited, worried, upbeat or impassive they might are about the enterprise. This sentiment can be then used by the enterprise to understand the perception about the enterprise that the external market carries and whether that perception is improving, degrading or staying unchanged. This insight can be used by the enterprise to improve their go to market plans, change their PR strategy or even go deeper and change their product strategy. Sentiment Analysis Is Not New The tracking, measurement and use of Sentiment is not a new scenario. Enterprises have been leveraging the output of sentiment analysis for a long time. User surveys, focus groups, market research, customer interviews etc. are all examples of generating data to perform and track sentiment. Similarly, influencer marketing through association with influencers or events or organizations with a certain perception or sentiment associated with them is a common technique to improve the enterprise's own sentiment. Sentiment Analysis and strategizing based on the analysis is a common and required function for any enterprise. Sentiment Analysis Using Artificial Intelligence With the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), enterprises now have another technique in their kitty to understand how they are perceived in the market and how that perception i

A pitfall in the path to innovation and disruption is the lop sided focus on "creation" and not enough focus on "consumption". Creation is the process of creating platforms, products, and solutions where as consumption focusses on ensuring that the created artifacts deliver the intended value. Too often enterprises get caught up in "creation" or enabling "creation" and lose sight of the fact that without consumption, anything they create is bound to be a failure. Creation & Consumption can not be Sequenced A misconception that often exists is that "if we build it, they will come" i.e creating the product and solution is enough and its existence will automatically lead to consumption and value generation for the customer. However, creation and consumption cannot be sequenced i.e. made a focus sequentially. Creation and consumption only succeed when they go hand in hand where tight, iterative loops ensure that the creation is informed by consumption trends and feedback and that consumption is also leveraging the latest creations. What Does A Lop-Sided Focus Look Like The top 3 signs of this lop-sided focus are as follows Focus on Building Platforms When the focus of the enterprise is building platforms and when customer value is only created when a developer leverages the platform to build a customer facing application, it often means that the effort invested in the platform has no ROI. When the focus is on platforms, application investment suffers and the platform builders get sidetracked with platform KPIs as opposed to business value KPIs. The platform builders might only focus on "Developer" satisfaction when ultimately, customer satisfaction matters for the business. Focus on Tools, Not on Solutions Another sign of lop-sided investment is a focus on tooling at the expense of solutions. Enterprise teams can often go overboard with building large libraries of tools and using the adoption of the tool as a metric of success. However, simil

Online teaching jobs in India is a very good choice, not only in India. If the teacher has good teaching skills with technical support just register on any online tuition point. There are a lot of sites on the internet for you to start your career with an Online Teacher. Not only teachers and lecturers any person with good technical skills can try their luck with an online tutor job. You can set your own time for this. I will discuss some sites in this article. You can find out more about jobs in education. These are full-pledged verified sites. Teaching is one of the Best Online Jobs in India.

GHS Label Information When it comes to labels, few are better known than the GHS labels (even if people don't always realize that is what they are called). GHS, or the Globally Harmonized System, is an international set of standards that are agreed upon to help ensure people from across many industries and around the world are all using universally recognized standards. This includes standards when it comes to the classification and labeling systems used for dangerous chemicals. The GHS labeling standards are used by regulatory agencies as well, including OSHA. While GHS is not itself a legal regulatory agency, most companies are required to follow their standards in this area because of the fact that their standards are adopted by governmental bodies. Common GHS Terms Whether reading GHS labels or making them, it is important to be aware of some terms that are commonly used. SDS - Safety data sheets are required to go along with most GHS labels. These data sheets can provide more detailed information about chemicals and other potentially hazardous materials. Class - Different types of hazards are broken up into different classes. Gasses that are under pressure would be one class. Acids could be another, just to give some examples. Hazard Groups - Hazardous materials are broken down into three groups, environmental, physical and health. Hazard Statement - Hazard statements are standardized to describe specific hazards. These statements give brief but essential pieces of information about the items being labeled. Precautionary Statement - This is a statement that provides instructions on how to avoid dangers when working with these materials. Signal Words - Signal words are DANGER and WARNING. Danger is to indicate a higher level of risk, while warning is for when there is a potential for harm but it is not quite as serious. Pictogram - Pictograms are the visual representation of specific risks. Typically they will just be a black image that is ea

According to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB), hot work accidents are among the most frequently reported accidents to that agency. Between 1990 and 2010, fires and explosions near flammable storage tanks caused by hot work accounted for more than 60 fatalities. Unfortunately, these accidents continue to take place. This past July, an explosion occurred during hot work near a storage tank at Omega Protein in Mississippi, killing one worker and injuring another. The tank contained eight inches of water and fish matter, which unknown to workers created flammable gases that led to the accident. When incidents like this happen, oftentimes the people and companies involved haven't sufficiently assessed hazards and properly isolated everything in the vicinity that could be flammable. These types of hot work accidents may not seem as obvious as other hazards associated with hot work such as UV light or welding fumes, but they can be even more deadly. The oil and gas industry often faces these hot work hazards, but so do the food production, paper and wastewater treatment industries, according to a video about the dangers of hot work made by the CSB. WHAT IS HOT WORK? OSHA defines hot work as "any work that involves burning, welding, using fire- or spark-producing tools, or that produces a source of ignition." Welding and cutting occur frequently at many industrial worksites, so it's important for workers involved in these operations to understand the potential unseen dangers associated with these tasks. Flammable gases and vapors can be present near storage tanks, fuel tanks and other confined spaces. PREVENT HOT WORK FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS In 2010, the CSB published a bulletin offering advice for how employers can prevent these types of hot work accidents. In the wake of recent accidents involving hot work and storage tanks filled with organic matter that might not seem hazardous (as was the case at Omega Protein), the organization has reemphasized the im

Ok, let's be honest here. Unless you are a safety professional, or you work closely with safety professionals, the chances are that no one has really told you anything about pipe marking, right? But for those of us lucky enough to work in this industry, it quickly becomes all too clear that there is an endless amount of information available about this very narrow topic. Unfortunately, about 99% of the information that people learn about pipe marking is just reiterating the standards and regulations that are put out by OSHA and other regulatory bodies. Now, make no mistake, this information is absolutely critical to learn and follow. The fact is, however, that there are A LOT of other things that someone who works with pipe marking should know. We've put together some helpful tips, tricks, information, and advice that covers a wide range of pipe marking related topics to help ensure your pipe marking strategies are as effective as possible. If you have any other 'secrets' of pipe marking that you don't see here, please contact us below so we can help pass them along in the future. Choose Your Materials Wisely Everyone knows that you can't just use the normal label materials that are basically paper with a little glue on the back, which you might buy at Office Depot. There are, however, lots of different types of industrial labeling materials out there, and picking the right one for the right area is essential. Here are several essential points to be aware of: Pipe Materials - Did you know that normal vinyl labels can cause corrosion on pipes made of nickel and stainless steel? If you have this type of piping, make sure you opt for labels that are identified as 'low halide' to avoid this potentially disastrous risk. Know the Weather Risks - When labeling outdoor piping, you need to keep weathering in mind. Most label materials are water-proof, but the constant change in temperature, humidity, wind, and more can really be rough on pipe markings

Lean Management - A Guide To Starting Out Right Much like anything over-used and spread before those singing praises have done a lot of research, Lean is a concept that sometimes, despite the best of intentions, misses its mark. Lean principles aren't particularly tricky, but with many offshoots and brands of the ideology, it can be easy for new Lean managers to get caught up in misinformation. At its core, lean is about eliminating all kinds of waste from your business. It sounds simple enough, but one of the biggest problems for many newbies is changing your concept of just what "waste" is. Once you've got a grasp on that, you need to move onto individual strategies that can help you eliminate that waste. In this article, we're going to go over how to accomplish both of these tasks as a manager who may be new to Lean by exploring unique facets of this management type and how they interact with elements of your business. One of the largest differences between Lean management and traditional styles of management is that in a traditional methodology your primary (and nearly sole) concern is the end of the line result. While Lean is of course concerned with achieving superior end results, its focus is on the processes that get you there. In this sense, what you learn and practice as a Lean manager is more about making individual pieces work together efficiently than having a tunnel-vision focus on numbers and figures at the end of the cycle. The Relationship Between Lean management, Waste Elimination, and Continual Improvement "If someone tells you that "lean management is this" and not something else, if someone puts it in a box and ties a bow around it and presents it in a neat package with four walls around it, then that someone knows not of what they speak. Why? Because it is in motion and not a framed picture hanging on the wall. It is a melody, a rhythm, and not a single note." - Lawrence M. Miller, Management Meditations While perhap