Supply chain. It’s been in the news, and not in a good way. It’s on everybody’s mind right now and has been for months and months. And it doesn’t seem to be getting better. The impact has been particularly acute in manufacturing plants and other facilities. They’re having problems finding spare parts and expendables to keep equipment running. Raw materials needed to make products are in short supply. And costs are going up for everything…an expense that is passed on to the consumer. Let’s look at some of the problems that exist due to supply chain issues and review what facilities are doing to address them.
I’ve seen it happen time and time again. Personnel at a facility, even those in leadership positions, get so used to the routine of their job that hazards and environmental issues related to the way people do their job that are obvious to an outsider are essentially invisible to them because they’ve become accustomed to the way things have always been. It’s a concept called familiarity blindness, and it can cause a facility to not only receive notices of violation…but can also create dangerous working conditions and result in accidents. Fortunately, there are easy ways to eliminate familiarity blindness and create a safe facility and proper work routines for everybody on site.
When excavating soil at your facility to lay foundations for new equipment or expanding a building’s footprint, you can end up with a lot of dirt, which sometimes could be considered Dirty Dirt or contaminated material. While it is tempting to hand off this material to a contractor or developer for use in a construction project or new subdivision, or even to a provider for recycling or disposal, do not rush to act, especially for a deal that seems too good to be true. Do your homework and make sure this material is properly characterized and managed to protect yourself from potential future environmental liabilities. If you give your soil to the wrong company, you could end up on the hook for regulatory fines and cleanup costs.
There is an imbalance in the world. Whether you’re employed in a facility or work as an environmental consultant or in some other profession that requires you to visit potentially dangerous job sites, you probably have a dangerous blind spot. Let me explain. At work, you take safety seriously. You wear eye protection or hearing protection whenever necessary. If there is contamination, you assess the potential exposure and select and wear the proper protective equipment. You stay aware of your surroundings to protect yourself and others from harm. Yet, when you leave work, your training goes out the window and you expose yourself and potentially others to all sorts of risks and dangers unnecessarily. I’m on a mission to change that.
