Machine Safety is Everyone’s Business

I’ve been spending a lot of time with both consumer packaged goods (CPGs) companies and machine builders lately, and there’s a couple of common themes that keep popping up in conversations. First, manufacturers are leaning on their OEM partners more, asking them to be proactive with machine maintenance. Second, these end users want all of the machines on the line to communicate, which puts OEMs more in the position of a systems integrator. And third, manufacturers want to ensure the machines are secure fromcyber threatsbefore opening up any channels of communication with the external OEM.

即将到来的OEM责任需要对其工作方式进行一些转变。但是，他们很难知道从哪里开始建立成为该战略合作伙伴所需的信任。在深入研究这个主题之后，我发现一个好的起点是机器安全。毕竟，安全的机器应挥舞一些决定。但是，经过更多的研究，我很快发现设计固有的安全机器并不容易，这一切都不容易。

Ron Bocian, an electrical engineer and risk manager at Urschel Laboratories, Inc., an Indiana-based OEM of food-cutting technology, told me that you can design a machine that is as safe as it can possibly be, but there will always be the fear of the unknown. It’s what Bocian calls reasonable foreseeable misuse. “What’s an operator going to do to get injured that you couldn’t foresee them doing?”

And that’s just one of the many things OEMs have to think about when they are designing a safe, yet flexible, machine. There are considerations around cost, competition, global markets and the ability to provide end users with more efficient systems that can evolve with new consumer demands. And all of this has to be done while meeting requirements from both the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) andFood and Drug Administration (FDA).

“Unfortunately, food safety is contradictory to machine safety,” Bocian says. “Machine safety is about adding interlocks that are creating crevices for bacteria to harbor. They are two competing safety issues. It’s a balancing act.”

On top of that, there are many safety standards and equipment requirements that can leave even savvy machine builders scratching their heads. For example, a robot integrated as part of a packaging machine used in a manufacturing facility will have to follow at least nine standards from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).

为了揭开对什么令人困惑的努力的神秘面纱，行业专家建议从由多个步骤组成的风险评估开始：确定危害，评估风险，将风险降低到可接受的水平，记录结果，并跟进以确保机器的后续does what it’s supposed to do. With that in mind, one of the first things an OEM should do is apply theANSI/PMMI B155.1-2016包装和处理机械标准的安全要求，这是一种识别控制危害和层次结构的正式方法。该标准指定术语，原理和逐个设计安全性的方法。

回到“合理可预见的滥用”的想法。这就是事情：信任双向采取。如果OEM将工作遵守安全标准和法规，则制造商必须创建安全文化和培训运营商以遵循规则和适当的程序。换句话说，不再将您的手放在某个地方不属于它，因为它可能会使制造或包装过程更快。

因此，尽管机器安全可能是其他开发领域的基础，例如线路集成和远程维护，但对于OEM来说，它仍然被认为是“冒险业务”。实际上，OEM独自肩负并不是一个负担，因为安全应被视为每个人的业务。