The Road to Safer EV Battery Manufacturing Runs On NIXN

One of the largest vehicle manufacturers in the world recently pledged to become fully electric by the beginning of the next decade. To accomplish this feat nearly 10 billion USD was invested to provide the heart of the vehicle, the battery. 

Multiple locations were selected for brand new state of the art facilities that would fulfill the need for the batteries. These facilities are estimated to cost between 2.5 – 3 billion USD each for the automaker.

Each of these projects is slated to be completed through a joint venture with multiple trader partners. These trade partners must abide by safety and health requirements of their own companies in addition to any federal and state regulations. Considering the automaker owns the facilities which are being constructed for, the trade partners must also abide by their safety and health policies.

A core safety and health policy of the automaker involves certain means and methods to pre-plan work. This pre-planning process involves listing which tasks will be performed and then identifying any potential risks, along with the mitigation techniques for the risks. The process was multi-layered and extremely thought out, but one factor wasn’t considered: the human nature of the individuals completing the documents. 

Issues began arising when the automaker uncovered the frontline craft employees were not thoroughly reviewing the job scope prior to starting work. Skipping this step ultimately puts the employees at greater risk. The reason for this is that if a job step is not planned for then the risks are not identified. If the job step and risks are not identified then safety policies and mitigation techniques can be overlooked or bypassed completely. The automaker knew they needed a different solution, and that solution was NIXN. 

By deploying NIXN the automaker was able to meet and exceed their current policy and fill existing voids by creating better workflows from project management to the front line through the following process:

  1. Onsite safety professionals received accounts and hands on training from NIXN account managers
  2. The task, risk, and mitigation combinations were customized for the automaker to match existing verbiage and requirements in their policies
  3. The submitted and approved trade partner plans were loaded into NIXN
  4. Foreman from the various trade partners were onboarded and trained
  5. Craft crew members were onboarded

From following the above roll-out and implementing NIXN for the project the automaker was able to accomplish numerous goals including the following:

  • Streamlined Workflow
    • Daily work plans are created digitally by the foreman
    • Craft employees are digitally onboarded and the company can easily retain and access their contact info, craft, years of experience, training records, and emergency contacts
    • Safety and project management are notified of the job plans, can review the job plans, and make edits if necessary
    • Safety can conduct audits and inspections linked directly to the submitted plans, which provides leading indicators including:
      • Advanced safety metrics
      • Rates of planned vs unplanned work per company or foreman
      • Safe vs unsafe audits per company or foreman
      • Corrections per company or foreman
      • Near misses
  • Advanced Project Metrics
    • Crew member information including craft, years of experience, hire-in date, and emergency information is stored
    • Manhour tracking is automated per task, per crew, per area, and per company through foreman daily work plans
    • Crew experience, crew size, and crew turnover is tracked through foreman daily work plans
    • General Contractors or clients can compare safety performance, manhours, and crew sizes across multiple contractors or the entire project
    • Incident, property damage, and near miss 
  • A More Educated Workforce
    • Daily reinforcement of potential hazards and mitigation techniques are performed when foreman review and submit job plans with their crews
    • Project management and safety professionals are informed of the job description and location
    • Safety professionals are guided through audits and able to determine which mitigation techniques should be in place and if a task was or wasn’t included and reviewed
  • Better Decision Making
    • Trade partners and clients make decisions based off insights rather than knee jerk reactions
    • Safety and project resources can be allocated accordingly from identified needs

Cannabis Industry Health & Safety

All employers in the cannabis industry, including those who cultivate, manufacture, distribute, sell, and test marijuana products, must take steps to protect their employees from all health and safety hazards associated with their work.

Many states have legalized the use of marijuana, both medicinally and recreationally. Studies have long focused on the public health and safety issues associated with these legislative changes. Still, few have given significant attention to the occupational health and safety of those working in the industry. Like any other industry, there is a strong need to take precautions and implement health and safety programs to protect employees of cannabis production and distribution facilities. As demonstrated by MAC Safety, Inc., with capabilities and knowledge of implementation of safety plans, there is an affordable and effective way to provide employee safety.  

The Scope of Present Dangers

The hazards associated with workplace accidents can range from minimally damaging to severe and life-threatening. Regardless of how extensive an injury may be, there is always the potential for financial hardship, emotional suffering, and lost labor to compound an already complicated situation. Within the cannabis industry, the following dangers are present:

  • Biological hazards such as mold, allergens, or sensitivities
  • Chemical hazards such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, pesticides, disinfectants, nutrient chemicals, corrosive chemicals, and indoor air quality
  • Physical hazards such as compressed gas, combustible or flammable liquids, ergonomics, occupation injuries, electrical, workplace violence, slips and falls, noise, extraction equipment, hand tools or machines, lighting or height hazards, and forklift injury

The Impact of Workers’ Compensation in the Cannabis Industry

Just as protections are afforded in those working in manufacturing, healthcare, or retail, carrying coverage in workers’ compensation for cannabis industry activities reduces the financial liabilities against company’s where an accident report is filed. A workplace accident or incident that causes illness, injury or loss of life for an employee can lead to a lawsuit for medical reimbursement and corresponding damages. Companies that carry workers’ comp coverage can have the costs of litigation or paying out medical benefits taken care of by the insurance provider.  MAC Safety can work directly with your risk team and insurance carrier to help keep these costs in line.

The Necessity of a Health and Safety Program

To limit exposure to accidents involving cannabis industry workers’ compensation claims, it is important to establish robust health and safety programs. Each employee should be involved in a safety program and understand their unique role in preventing accidents. Conduct assessments to identify hazards and train employees in both preventative and response behaviors. Ensure consistency among implementation through a risk management team. Continually evaluate the safety program for deficiencies or weaknesses through feedback or incident reports and adopt corrective measures as quickly as possible.

The Benefits of a Strong Program (and working with MAC Safety, Inc.)

In addition to reducing the occurrences of workplace accidents, a strong safety program can lower the cost of a workers’ compensation plan. All safety procedures should be aligned with the requirements issued by the Occupation Health and Safety Administration, as well as any risk management advice given by the insurance provider.  Occupational health and safety regulations that may apply to employers in the cannabis industry:

Electrical Hazards

Exposures to Airborne Contaminants

Flammable Liquids and Gases

Hazard Communication

Hazardous Energy – Lockout/Tagout

Heat Illness Prevention

Machine Hazards

Personal Protective Equipment

Point of Operation Hazards

Pressure Vessels

Repetitive Motion Injuries

Sanitation and Pest Control

Slips, Trips, Falls and Use of Ladders

Some other areas to focus on for indoor growing facilities – obstructed / or reduced paths of egress, overloaded circuits – wiring, absence or lack of fire suppression systems, and the close proximity of abundant heat sources to flammable material in oxygen-rich environments.

Tax Codes – Insurance – MAC Safety (NIXN)

Section 280E of the federal tax code prohibits businesses from deducting ordinary business expenses associated with “trafficking” Schedule 1 substances.  This tax code provision was intended to penalize illegal activities, but it also prohibits 

cannabis vendors that are operating legally under state law from taking the same federal tax deductions that other small businesses can take.  A cannabis business can deduct the cost of goods sold, but it may not deduct the following: (Employee salaries, Utility costs, Health insurance premiums, Marketing costs,

 repairs / maintenance, rental fees, payment to contractors.) – 26 U.S.C. section 41 – encourages businesses to invest in technology.  MAC Safety provides to all clients our proprietary software, that meets these criteria.   The R&D Tax Credit is a dollar-for-dollar tax savings that directly reduces a company’s tax liability. There is no limitation on the amount of expenses and credit that can be claimed each year. 

General Liability Insurance

Despite the unique nature of the cannabis business, most general liability claims have been the garden variety slip and fall type premises and operation claims.  Depending on the nature of the business, insurers providing commercial general liability (CGL) insurance for cannabis-related business (CRB) are likely to consider the following underwriting factors: Compliance with safety protocols, Management experience (a core NIXN function to identify), and Training and experience of employees (another NIXN function, to identify employee experience), documentation of standard operating procedures (housed and observable in NIXN), management experience in the industry (another core NIXN feature).

Get In Touch

Contact us today by email [email protected] or by phone 724.513.4491

Data Driven Safety via the Vita Lifting System White Paper

Author: MAC Safety Consultants (“MAC Safety”)

Date: December 29, 2021

Key Conclusion

The construction industry experiences lost workdays, equipment damage, personnel injury, and death because of spinning crane loads. In the United States, 25.4% of all crane injuries are due to spinning crane loads, costing the industry hundreds of millions annually. According to our analysis, introducing the Vita Lifting Solution to provide load rotation control reduces the risk of spinning crane load accidents by 63.1%. Additionally, the Vita Lifting System improves load management efficiency, speeding up operations that leads to increased crane productivity by enabling 725,000 more loads to be lifted every single day.

Data Driven Safety

MAC Safety is a construction data aggregation and analysis company that has collected a 4TB crowd sourced dataset populated with real world construction project data from 2018 to Present with 4 million observations across 2,000 projects. This dataset informs a deep learning graph neural network (GNN) that runs a proprietary model called NIXN. The NIXN Model simulates construction site activities to identify risk points and establish the value and risk reduction potential for products like the Vita Lifting System.

Vita Inclinata Technologies is an industrial load control system developer and manufacturer. Vita contracted MAC Safety to leverage NIXN to assess the impact of the Vita Lifting System on construction industry risks, specifically those from cranes moving loads.

According to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), there are an estimated 225,000 cranes in operation in the United States on any given day. These cranes move an average 2.4 million picks (“loads”) per day, exposing approximately 250,000 crane operators, load riggers, and other site workers to daily risk of crane-related injury or death. Based upon statistical averages, 25.4% of the crane accidents in the United States are due to personnel being struck or caught by spinning crane loads. Of those accidents, 1 in 9,000 cranes will cause a fatality each year. Given that on average, a SINGLE injury will cost $200,000, and a SINGLE fatality will cost $4,000,000, annual costs to the industry from fatalities alone approach $100 Million dollars.

Based upon NIXN modeling, MAC Safety identified specific risk points such as slips, trips, falls, and crush hazards associated with crane load movement. By removing workers from the load vicinity by application of remote, precision control technology the Vita Lifting System provides, the risks can be eliminated or significantly mitigated. Because of the large data set of real world construction site risks, we are able to quantify the impact as a 300% fatality risk reduction, and a 63.1% overall accident reduction.

About Mac Safety Consultants

MAC Safety was founded in 2006 by Chris Miranda who scaled the business to one of the largest safety service providers in the country. In 2018 MAC Safety ownership founded MAC Intelligence and created a flagship product NIXNTM. Currently NIXN serves as the safety management product of choice for over 500 companies across the world, along with insurance carriers and brokers.

OSHA Ensures Safety to Temporary and Contracted Workers

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is updating its take on all temporary and contracted employees.

A recent article came out covering the safety of temporary and contracted workers.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently placed renewed focus on protecting temporary and contracted workers, encouraging employers to treat temporary worker safety the same as they do with permanent employees.

 

OSHA’s Renewed Focus on Temps

OSHA recommends that the temporary staffing agency and the host employer set out their respective responsibilities for compliance with applicable OSHA standards in their contract. Including such terms in a contract will ensure that each employer complies with all relevant regulatory requirements, thereby avoiding confusion as to the employer’s obligations.

Recommended Practices: Protecting Temporary Workers (from OSHA)

The National Safety Council (NSC) also calls for host employers and staffing agencies to coordinate and share responsibility for ensuring the health and safety of temporary and contract workers. State-by state data show temporary workers can have double the risk of suffering severe injuries at work and often are assigned to higher risk jobs, according to the NSC.

Aside from working closely with staffing agencies, the NSC also recommends employers:

  • Establish a policy that states clearly that all workers in all types of employment arrangements have equal rights to a safe and healthy workplace.
  • Develop and implement procedures to ensure that all workers, including temporary and contract workers, are provided a safe and healthy workplace and that there is clarity on supervisory control.
  • Establish mandatory requirements for safety training based on the work environment and risks of job assignments to be delivered by the contract worker employer, staffing agency, and/or host employer.
  • Work with contract worker employers and staffing agencies to identify how to gather and analyze appropriate information about temporary and contract workers to better understand any challenges to ensuring their safety and health and what strategies can be effective in further reducing risk.
  • Develop strategies with contract worker employers to ensure roles and responsibilities associated with accountability for worker safety are clearly understood and effectively executed.
  • Monitor trends in the use of temporary and contract workers in order to address changing needs for maintaining a safe and healthy workplace for all workers.

To learn more about OSHA’s temporary employee and contracted workers regulations, contact MAC Safety.

Should Your Business Consider OSHA Training

OSHA Training Boston, MA

Cultivating a safe and efficient work environment is important to any company, regardless of what industry you’re in. Neither worker safety or OSHA compliance are things to take lightly. This is why MAC Safety Consultants is offering OSHA training in Boston, MA.

There are many reasons to consider safety training courses for your workplace. First, OSHA compliance training courses can significantly reduce worker injury. This translates to fewer losses due to workers’ compensation claims or lost productivity and fewer fines for OSHA violations.

Our Boston OSHA training will take your company’s safety program to the next level. A safer work environment can reduce operating costs and increase worker morale and productivity. Safety training accelerates this by shifting the culture of your workplace. An environment is created where everyone feels valued and has each other’s backs.

What’s Included in Our OSHA Training in Boston, MA?

Our Boston, MA OSHA training includes the following:

  • OSHA Consultation
  • Mock OSHA Inspections
  • Customized Safety Programs
  • Risk Assessments
  • Professional Safety Staffing

Our OSHA compliance experts bring their extensive knowledge on a number of site-specific safety issues to your workplace. This allows us to create a customized safety training program that is responsive to the unique needs of your workers.

Lean on our years of experience to protect your workers and keep them safe. We’ll change the way your workers think about workplace safety. Everyone will realize the individual role they play in ensuring all workers return home safely at the end of the workday.

OSHA Training Can Save Money & Lives

Promoting safer work practices helps prevent accidents and exposures that are risks to you and your workers. Each year, roughly 4000 workers die on the job while over 3 million are injured. These numbers don’t even include the thousands of people that die every year from workplace-related illnesses.

Training is an important part of any health and safety program.

For example, a survey of 195 workers before and after OSHA safety training revealed that 75 percent of workers carried things like lunch boxes or tools up ladders prior to training, but only 26 percent did afterward.

In another example, prior to training, only 37 percent of trainees checked the build and security of scaffolding, but that number increased to 79 percent post-training.

Countless other examples have been noted. Workers avoiding injury or even possible death thanks to lock-out/tag-out training. Awareness goes a long way.

From a business perspective, needless to say, savings from averted accidents can be extensive.

Stop Sweating OSHA Compliance Audits

Our OSHA training will also get your business and worksite prepared for OSHA compliance audits. Fines levied for OSHA violations found during an inspection can be quite serious. Boston OSHA safety training will get your site into shape and ensure your safety documentation is in order.

Contact Us Today for OSHA Safety Training in Boston

For more information on our OSHA training in Boston, MA, contact us today at (617) 997-8399. Take the next step to improving worker safety and running a more efficient and productive worksite.

PA Medical Marijuana OSHA Compliance

MEDICAL MARIJUANA OSHA COMPLIANCE

In April of 2016, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed legislation into law to authorize the use of medical marijuana (the Medical Marijuana Act or MMA) in the state of Pennsylvania.

Effective May 17, 2016, this recent law permits the use of marijuana to treat ailments ranging from HIV/AIDS and cancer to autism, Alzheimer’s disease, ALS, epilepsy, Crohn’s Disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, and more.

However, smoking marijuana remains illegal under the MMA. Medical marijuana is to only be dispensed via alternative delivery systems like oils or pills and topical gels, creams, and ointments.

Under the new law, medical marijuana is to only be dispensed to an individual (or that individual’s caregiver) properly certified for this treatment by a medical provider. Certified patients will be issued an identification card from the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Medical marijuana growers/processors and dispensaries in PA are in the process of setting up shop to accommodate cardholders.

This has many wondering how this new law will impact Pennsylvania workplaces? Particularly, how does medical marijuana fit into OSHA compliance?

MARIJUANA & OSHA COMPLIANCE – WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR

MAC Safety is in the process of fitting medical marijuana OSHA compliance into our programs. We are already consulting on the subject. Here’s what we know thus far regarding marijuana, compliance, and OSHA:

  1. Drug-free workplaces or any zero-tolerance drug policies will remain intact.
  2. Employers will need updated policies specifically stating that although medical marijuana has been signed into law, it remains prohibited under current workplace policy.
  3. Any employer that doesn’t have a drug-free workplace/zero-tolerance drug policy in place needs to draft one ASAP. This is the only way an employer can claim “just cause” for firing an employee for his or her use of medical marijuana.
  4. It remains legal for employers to fire any employee found to be using, in possession of, or distributing marijuana.
  5. Although each law’s protections vary, Pennsylvania has joined a handful of states (including Delaware and Connecticut) to prohibit employment discrimination against employees using medical marijuana. Employers cannot discharge, threaten, refuse to hire, discriminate, or retaliate against an employee “solely on the basis of the employee being certified to use medical marijuana.” In other words, employers are not permitted to take disciplinary action against an employee based solely on his or her status as a medical marijuana cardholder. This is considered discrimination under MMA guidelines.
  6. Employers have no obligation to accommodate an employee’s use of medical marijuana.
  7. Medical marijuana users aren’t entitled to unemployment benefits.
  8. Workers compensation claim defenses should remain as is.
  9. Employers maintain their right to challenge any workers compensation claim where intoxication (including marijuana) can be cited as a cause or contributor. Proving intoxication can be as simple as citing a positive drug screen for marijuana post-accident.
  10. OSHA may cite employers for any post-accident drug testing policies or procedures deemed too broad or seen as being retaliatory towards employees reporting workplace accidents.

CONTACT US TODAY REGARDING OSHA COMPLIANCE & MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Needless to say, states legalizing medical marijuana, or even decriminalizing recreational marijuana, present unchartered territory for OSHA compliance and workplace safety.

As we await more details about Pennsylvania’s approach, we look towards OSHA’s approach in states where medical or recreational marijuana are already legal for guidance.

You can count on MAC Safety to lead the way when it comes to prepping businesses and industries in Pennsylvania for medical marijuana’s potential impact on the workplace. We’ll keep you informed to changes and any required documentation needed by a specific date.

Call us today at 724-847-3331 for medical marijuana and OSHA compliance consulting in Pennsylvania. You can also reach out to us via our website at http://macsafetyconsultants.com/contact.

Why You Need a Pittsburgh Risk Management Firm

Why You Need A Pittsburgh Risk Management Firm

Are you looking to better assess and control worksite dangers and risks? Here are six reasons why you need a risk management firm to best accomplish this.

You Need Help Identifying Risks

It’s important for any business or worksite to identify potential on-the-job or onsite risks. Properly assessing and identifying risks is the only way for management to lessen their negative impact.

You want to keep your workers and anyone onsite healthy and safe. It’s your obligation to them. You also want to do do all you can to avoid potential fines for any violation of health and safety codes or OSHA non-compliance.

While you may think this is something you can carry out internally or through a direct hire, having a team of trained pros analyzing your unique risks is invaluable. It’s your best bet to identify each individual risk and strategize how to effectively deal with them.

It’s the Financially Prudent Thing to Do

Having workers out of work with injuries or health issues impacts your bottom line. It impacts productivity and can set back projects. That’s not even factoring in the costs of Workers Compensation claims or potential lawsuits.

Working with a risk management consultant also shows a potential lender, business partner, or customer that you’re proactive, not reactive. Reassurance that you’ll be prepared if a problem ever arises. From a lender’s perspective, this may make them warm up to increasing credit limits or extending a loan.

You Must Protect Your Resources

While this touches a little on item #2, it can also be categorized as its own benefit. Working with a risk management consulting company gives you the time to focus on revenue generating endeavors. If a problem emerges, you have assurance that a plan of action is in place to swiftly and appropriately respond to it. Risk management firms save time, money, and physical resources. Workers stay healthy and productive. This means they also stay focused on the tasks at hand and the work that needs to be done.

It’s Good for Branding

Working with a risk management consulting firm sends a positive message about your company. Employees tend to have better morale. They feel that they’re working for a responsible company that will go the extra mile to keep their workers safe. Customers have reassurance they’re doing business with a proactive and professional company that holds itself to a high standard.

You Benefit from a Collaborative Effort

The task of risk management necessitates a collaborative group effort involving many people. Things observed or information gathered while developing a risk management plan can be useful in other situations later.

Good for Insurance

Insurance is one element of any comprehensive risk management. A risk management consultant firm’s objective is to help your company reduce the impact of a risk. Business insurance is another way to defray the impact of negative risks.

TALK TO A PITTSBURGH RISK MANAGEMENT FIRM

MAC Safety Consultants, Inc. is a Pittsburgh risk management firm with over two decades of experience in varied industries. If you’d like to talk about a customized risk assessment and management plan for your company, call us today at 724-847-3331.724.847.3331