Keys to compliance

Jan. 1, 2014
Meet OSHA requirements with these five steps.

You’ve probably heard about the Connecticut shop that recently was investigated and fined by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The name of that shop and the specifics surrounding the case won’t be mentioned here, since they’re not the focus of this article. More important to you is the fact that OSHA investigations do happen, and shops do get fined — often thousands of dollars.

Beyond the monetary loss, there’s plenty of other fallout you’ll probably experience should you ever be fined. Customers and neighbors can come to believe you aren’t running a particularly clean operation. Blame runs throughout your shop as employees, management and ownership point at one another.

Fortunately, you can avoid these problems with the right approach to your work. The key to OSHA compliance is organization. Get your act together and make your shop the safest, most compliant business possible with these steps:

Step 1. Choose a compliance manager.

While everyone on your team plays an important part in compliance, you still need to name one person who will lead your efforts. This person will be responsible for knowing all OSHA, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and local safety and environment regulations.

Putting one person in charge offers several significant advantages. For one, this person can focus on compliance and be the resource for your and others’ questions. If this responsibility is placed on several employees, there’s a greater chance the duties required might get passed around — and ignored or dismissed.

You’ll want to make sure your compliance manager already has a significant role in your operation. This employee needs to have the power to enforce rules and correct employees who make mistakes.

What skill set should your compliance manager have? Find someone with impeccable organizational skills, who already has an interest in compliance and has the time to manage this important part of your business. Don’t take it on yourself if you don’t have the time, nor should you pass it onto a production manager who already is drowning in work. Assistant managers, a shop foreman and others can be well suited for this position.

Step 2: Make everyone responsible.

Every one of your employees potentially can violate an OSHA regulation. Therefore, everyone plays a vital role in compliance. Your job, and one of your compliance manager’s duties, is to drive the importance of compliance home to every one of your employees.

Tony Wise, owner of Wise’s Expert Auto in Charlotte, N.C., faced just this dilemma when he was reorganizing his shop three years ago. ABRN recently covered Wise’s efforts to squeeze more work out of his shop by increasing its interior space.

While making these changes, Wise brought on board a new production manager, Paul Martino, to help him hone his lean operation. Wise was shocked when Martino’s first contribution during a shop meeting took what seemed at first to be a path well away from lean production.

“Paul held up a $20 bill and said it went to the first employee who could locate a fire extinguisher within 20 seconds,” Wise recalls.

Employees were so shocked that it took a full minute before anyone could locate an extinguisher. Martino then offered to buy dinner to the first person who could locate a first aid kit within the next 30 seconds. Again, everyone failed.

“That was Paul’s way of demonstrating his take on lean and safe operations,” says Wise. “They’re one and the same. Whether you’re working lean or have another production theory, you need to be safe and compliant.”

From that meeting, Wise knew Martino would be his compliance manager, a duty that Martino took to heart. Martino immediately put together a program to ensure every employee had the knowledge and inclination to stay compliant.

Wise calls the program “Test, train and drill.” He explains that Martino started by identifying all the compliance issues employees face in their work areas — electrical, waste disposal, chemical handling and storage, etc.

He then tested employees to determine what they needed to know. From there, the shop started weekly training sessions. Martino made a point of cross-training employees so that everyone — including estimators and administrative workers — knew the regulations by which the shop had to abide. He also made a point during each day’s production meeting to discuss any problems and new rules for the shop.

Wise says that compliance quickly became a large part of the shop’s business culture. That was important, because Wise was resetting his shop and employees were relearning how and where to store and source materials and equipment. He eventually made a yearly test that employees had to score 100 percent on as part of their annual goals needed to hit bonus pay.

Step 3: Put everything in its place.

Wise says another lesson he learned was that the best way to comply with OSHA standards is to run an orderly business.

As part of his efforts to reset his shop and create space, Wise discovered one of the best paths was to map out his shop and ensure every inch of his business’s space was dedicated to a specific purpose. This is just as important for storage as it is for work.

Wise notes that while his shop looked neat and organized, it really wasn’t. Every available bit of storage was being used, and equipment was spread out throughout the shop. His compliance manager pointed out that most of the OSHA compliance violations he was able to review were related to unsafe storage — equipment blocking fire extinguishers, flammable materials not properly stored, dangerous clutter, etc.

Wise says these violations occur because shops don’t plan out the use of their space and stick to that plan. By strictly maintaining his plan, Wise not only created valuable work space, but made his shop safer.

“You don’t end up with problems if you’ve instilled in your employees that everything goes in a specific place,” says Wise.

Step 4: Invest in supplies that are compliant.

One key area of OSHA compliance aimed at auto repair shops is safety equipment — specifically gloves, respirators, safety glasses, ear protection, clothes and shoes. OSHA lists the requirements for these supplies in its material safety data sheet (MSDS).

Because these requirements change, your compliance manager will need to look for updates, then update your shop’s stock and/or its training for their use.

For example, safety glasses must meet American National Standard Institute (ANSI) standards. Gloves must meet other standards based on how they’re being used and their composition.

“Once one of these rules changes, you have to change your inventory,” says Wise. “Vendors are really good at notifying you, but this is where you need your compliance leader to take control and swap out old supplies for compliant ones.”

Step 5: Be as green as possible.

Moving to waterborne paints and adopting other green policies means far more than protecting your employees and the environment. By reducing the toxins in your shop, you cut down on the possibility of violating OSHA rules: Fewer toxins typically translate into fewer spills, less toxic material to manage and fewer opportunities for employees to mishandle these materials.

Mike Bilderbury, owner of WC Automasters in Sacramento, Calif., says making these moves has saved him money and headaches. “Being in California, we strive to be as green as possible, and promote ourselves as such,” he says. “Each change we made to control anything flammable or dangerous had real results. My workers said they felt better, and our disposal costs really dropped.”

Ultimately, that sense of truly improving your business and protecting your employees is what OSHA compliance is about. OSHA regulations have a very necessary place in any work space. Abiding by them is a matter of accepting this point and taking the necessary steps to ensure these rules play a part in your operation.

SIDEBART: The Red Hat Society

Wise’s Expert Auto, Charlotte, N.C., have an unusual way to deal with employees who violate a U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulation or otherwise work unsafely.

“We had an old red work hat that had been left here by the previous owner,” says owner Tony Wise. “It was kind of a running joke, since employees used to leave it in each other’s lockers.”

Wise began requesting employees who made a mistake to wear the red hat for a day. While it may sound juvenile, Wise explains that it was an effective teaching tool.

“We discovered that making a compliance mistake most often was a matter of an employee working too quickly or just being sloppy,” he says. “When your work actions result in embarrassment, you’ll take an extra moment to think before making a mistake that could result in an injury or an OSHA fine.”

Wise himself wasn’t immune to this lesson. While speaking to a group of vocational students, he left a respirator on a desk instead of in a designated storage area. One of the students pointed out the violation; Wise immediately found the hat and spent the rest of the day wearing it, after explaining to them the shop’s violation policy.

“I had the respirator out to show them how to properly wear it and intended to put it back at the end of the tour,” says Wise. “I was wrong. I learned my lesson, and I hope they did, too.”

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