Ensuring machinery safety and achieving compliance can seem straightforward, but for many OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) and machinery end users, a lack of knowledge about the compliance process and the applicable legislation often becomes a significant hurdle. The challenge lies not just in understanding the requirements, but in knowing how to effectively implement them.
To achieve machinery compliance and certification, three critical areas of expertise are required:
- Understanding of the Machine’s Design and Operation: This includes how the machine functions and how operators use it in real-world scenarios. Typically, this knowledge resides with the machine builder, with insights provided by the end user.
- Knowledge of Compliance and Certification Process: A thorough understanding of the applicable legislation and standards is essential to identify the gap between the current state of the machine and a fully compliant one.
- Capability to Implement Corrective Safeguards: Knowing how to apply the appropriate safety solutions and engineering modifications is crucial. This includes installing safeguards like light curtains, emergency stops, and interlocked systems.
While these areas of expertise can exist within a single organization, they often don’t. More often than not, these skill sets are interdependent, and the absence of any one of them can prevent a machine from being certified as compliant. This is why partnerships between specialists are vital.
The Role of Outsourcing Expertise
In today’s manufacturing and engineering sectors, where resource shortages are common, external partnerships are often the most viable solution to bridge gaps in compliance knowledge and capabilities.
Here’s why outsourcing these areas of expertise can be highly beneficial:
- Machine-Specific Knowledge: Without an understanding of how the machine operates from the manufacturer or end user, it becomes difficult—if not impossible—for a compliance expert to thoroughly assess it. Likewise, an engineering solutions provider cannot effectively install safeguards without this knowledge.
- Navigating Legislation: Understanding the compliance process is essential, but navigating complex legislative requirements can be time-consuming and confusing. A compliance expert can guide you through the certification process, assess the machine’s current compliance state, and provide a clear roadmap for achieving full compliance.
- Implementing the Correct Solutions: While a compliance expert can identify what needs to be corrected, they often lack the capabilities to implement these corrections. This is where engineering partners come in. They must be familiar with relevant standards, such as EN 60204-1 for electrical systems, to ensure that the solutions they install are fully compliant. Otherwise, rework may be needed, costing time and money.
Why Separation of Roles is Important
It’s important to ask: Should the compliance expert and the solutions installer be the same entity?
This is akin to asking if your driving instructor should also be your test examiner. There’s a potential conflict of interest when an installation company also handles compliance assessments, as they may be inclined to identify more work than is strictly necessary for compliance.
Additionally, the separation allows for specialized focus—compliance experts can stay updated with ever-evolving regulations, while the installation team focuses on mastering engineering solutions. This specialization ensures that both compliance and implementation are handled by experts at the top of their respective fields, resulting in more efficient and reliable outcomes.
By separating these roles, you ensure an unbiased assessment and avoid unnecessary rework or over-engineered solutions.
Knox Thomas and SST: A Partnership That Works
At Knox Thomas, we provide expert guidance and assessments based on the requirements of machinery safety legislation and standards. Our role is to identify non-compliances and provide clarity on what “good” or “correct” looks like. However, we do not implement the physical safety solutions ourselves. Instead, we partner with Safety Systems Technology (SST), a trusted safety systems provider that complements our services.
Once we complete an assessment, SST steps in to design, engineer, and install the corrective actions necessary to achieve a compliant and safe machine. This partnership ensures that the solutions are not only effective but also meet the relevant standards. By working together, Knox Thomas and SST streamline the compliance process and help clients achieve certification faster and more efficiently.
Case Study: PUWER Assessment in a Distribution Warehouse
A recent example of our partnership’s success involved a PUWER assessment at a large distribution warehouse. The client initially asked us to evaluate their engineering workshop. While the workshop needed improvements in layout and machine safety, the risks were relatively low due to the experience of the technicians.
However, upon assessing the shop floor, we identified significant risks with an extensive conveyor system. The conveyor was unguarded, with accessible drive systems and poorly safeguarded entry and exit points. The e-stop functionality and integration with the pallet wrapper were inadequate, allowing the conveyor to continue running even when the pallet wrapper was in an electrically “safe” and isolated state. This presented a considerable risk, especially given the low skill level of the shop floor operatives.
Knox Thomas conducted a thorough assessment, identifying hazards and non-compliances. We then brought in SST to scope and implement the necessary safety solutions. SST’s expertise in safety-related control functions and standards ensured that the installed solutions, including light curtains and emergency stop systems, were fully compliant.
The Value of External Expertise
By leveraging external consultants and partners, manufacturers and end users can significantly reduce both the cost and time it takes to achieve compliance. With specialists like Knox Thomas to assess compliance and partners like SST to implement safety solutions, the path to a certified and safe machine becomes clearer, faster, and more reliable.
Bringing in external expertise streamlines the certification process and minimises uncertainty, ensuring that your machine is not only compliant but also safe for use in accordance with the law.