Complying with safety standards is not simply a matter of inserting safety controls in plant machinery. There are efficiency considerations in how the machine is set up with controls and how it is shut down when a controlling device senses something is amiss. There are further complications that occur when a manufacturer sends machinery overseas or opens a new plant in Eastern Europe. Labor may be less expensive, but the safety standards in Europe are both more stringent and simply different. The same manufacturing system that worked so well in Ohio needs to be revamped when it is operated in Ontario, Canada, or Warsaw, Poland.
Most manufacturers turn to control suppliers for consultation and direction on implementing safety standards. Even manufacturers who follow the standards changes carefully still look to their suppliers, since the suppliers typically sit on the committees that write the standards. To suppliers, their standards knowledge is a competitive factor in serving their manufacturing customers, so they’re happy to fulfill the role of “experts,” as standards expand and shift globally.
In the world of safety standards, controls suppliers are the consultants who help manufacturers assess safety issues and make changes to ensure compliance. The manufacturer’s safety committee learns the details of standard, but much of its training comes from the suppliers’ representatives. There’s no layer of consulting between the manufacturer and the standards interpretation, except that from the supplier. “We’re the experts, and we’re dealing with safety standards 24/7,” says Mike Carlson, safety product marketing manager at Banner Engineering Corp., of Minneapolis. “We can see where people are making mistakes and we can boil it down to reasonable suggestions in U.S., Canadian and European standards.”
Suppliers often set up formal training to alert their customers to changes in standards and to introduce new standards such as the recent NFPA 79 set out by the National Fire Protection Association. “We currently do training seminars to help train our customers,” says Carlson. “We also train our sales force so they’re not making poor recommendations.”
Even manufacturers that are deeply involved in tracking changes in standards still turn to suppliers for information on compliance. “The big three automakers have standards committees and they have an idea of the standards, and some of them even sit on the standards committees,” says John D’Silva, business development manager, machine safety for North America at Siemens Energy & Automation, in Alpharetta, Ga. “But when something changes, they turn to Siemens to find out what’s changed.” He notes that customers who understand the standards still turn to their suppliers for guidance, because the suppliers are involved in multiple applications across many industries and thus have learned effective ways to implement changes. “We help our customers leverage the changes in standards so they’re cost effective.”
Responsibility for tracking standards development really falls on the company producing and selling the controls. “It’s really not the responsibility of the manufacturer to know all of the standards,” explains Frank Watkins, program manager, Safety Controls Business, at Rockwell Automation, in Milwaukee. “We help our customers in the educational process because we have people on the standards committees such as the IEC 60621 standard for functional safety for programmable electronic systems in machinery control.”
The communication between supplier and manufacturer on standards is an ongoing conversation. “We talk to customers constantly about what standards are coming out and what’s already here. Our customers deliver in Europe and they have to meet those standards,” says Watkins. “Most customers are very good about going out and reading the standards, but they turn to us for equipment to comply with the standard and to help with applying the standard.”
For manufacturers, the training on standards they receive from their suppliers comes as a value-added service. As long as they’re buying control devices from a supplier that’s deeply involved in standards development, the advice and training on how to apply the standards is effectively included in the cost of the control device. “Keeping up with standards is a competitive factor and it’s free to our customers,” says Carlson, of Banner Engineering. “We have a few safety-oriented services that we sell to start the process, but generally, we provide it as a value add.”
So the controls supplier acts as a mostly free consultant to the manufacturing community. “There is very little distance between us and the source of the standards, so we don’t generally rely on consultants,” says Carlson. “Banner volunteers my time to develop these standards as an expert in my field. We monitor what our customers are doing, whether that’s Chrysler, Delphi, GM or Ford.” According to Carlson, keeping up with standards goes beyond North America. “We also have an organization that keeps track of what Europe is doing. We take it very seriously and put a lot of resources into it,” says Carlson.
As well as keeping up on standards, suppliers become the defacto information source on standards, even to the point of providing their customers with heads up on what they need to track until the customer assumes the job of paying attention to a new standard. “Our customers know they can call us for questions,” says Rockwell’s Watkins.
There are some cases when consulting needs exceed the context of a value-added service. In these cases, the supplier either trains the manufacturer in the application of the standard or charges the manufacturer for the job of bringing a large plant into compliance. “We start out by helping the customer as a value add, but if they say, ‘We need to do changes to the whole plant,’ then they need to hire a third-party helper,” says Siemens’ D’Silva.
For manufacturers, tracking standards carefully and working to comply with them effectively brings in the skills of risk assessment and can lead to productivity gains. Says Rockwell’s Watkins, “The way the product is designed may have bearings on how to reduce risk. So we get involved in how the standards are applied.”
He also notes that manufacturers have been paying more attention to safety standards in recent years, especially as compliance becomes a legal concern. “The interest on the part of the customer has mushroomed in the past few years,” says Watkins. “Our customers are shipping all over the world, and in Europe, the standards carry the weight of the law.”
In the interest of keeping the cost of compliance down, suppliers are guiding their customers into strategies that offset some of the compliance expenses by delivering productivity improvements. “Safety is a path toward productivity gain,” says Watkins. “Safety has enabled our customers to be more productive.” Companies can drive the greatest amount of productivity when they put the safety controls into their manufacturing systems when they are being set up. “Designing safety into a system rather than adding it afterwards makes the productivity even greater,” explains Watkins. “Our customers want productivity, so they pay attention to safety, and the standards are helping.”
For controls manufacturers, the world of standards compliance is cutthroat competition. If you don’t have a representative sitting on a committee, you may find that the details of the safety standard leave your devices out of compliance. “This is a competitive business, so we have to stay on top of it,” says Rockwell’s Watkins. As well as being on hand to protect their interests on the committee’s recommendations, participating on a committee gives suppliers an early peek into the nature of the standard so they can get a head start on preparing to comply with the standard. “By participating on the committee when the standard is released, we get a heads up on how we can adapt to meet those standards,” says Watkins.
