A Holistic Approach to Safety Automation

Every manufacturer aims to provide a safer workplace for its employees. In addition, they need to maintain productivity of the facility while protecting production equipment and the environment. Furthermore, depending on the corporate culture and location of each facility, a manufacturer must meet various social responsibility and legislative criteria. What dictates the success of a safety program? First and foremost, corporate support. This support must start with top management's commitment to the program and continue through to each individual employee's adherence to the philosophy of " safety first. " Once corporate support is secured, an effective safety program encompasses several key factors, ranging from the proper use of eye and ear protection to the adoption of contemporary manufacturing strategies to the deployment of a well-designed and integrated safety automation system. This paper will focus on the latter. The Historical View Many of today's legacy manufacturing applications use dated technology and know-how. Some of these applications were developed with a blind eye toward safety – relying only