the team shouldn’t end there. “I maintain you need to include four disciplines: operators, maintenance personnel, control engineers and safety personnel," Huber says.

Operators can provide input on how they interact physically with different parts of the machine, as well as how the techniques they use to run the equipment at the fastest rate. On the other hand, maintenance personnel know ways to slow the machine down so they can see what’s going on.

Getting a range of input also helps ensure that the selected safety plan will be followed routinely. “If operators and maintenance people aren’t involved, they won’t buy into the program, which can cause big problems,” Washam says.