Optimation Blog

As manufacturers strive for a zero-incident workplace, they fight with realities like the 2nd law of thermodynamics. This law essentially says that entropy exists in nature and the natural course of entropy is the tendency of systems to go towards disorder. What that means for all human activity - be it manufacturing or making an omelet - is that we must exert quality energy to combat this natural law. We at Optimation take this very seriously and we know that when we reach a benchmark, we must celebrate with setting even higher ones.

Electrical safety is important because electricity may cause serious injuries, or even fatalities.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a turbulent time for many manufacturers and other businesses. Balancing business needs with safety can be challenging, particularly when this pandemic disrupted supply chains, labor availability, and investment. Optimation has continually risen to this challenge by management the disruptions with strategic and thoughtful courses of action. We developed business continuation and risk mitigation plans early which ensured our operations would continue safely.

As we continue business operations, Optimation has been actively working on fabrications for manufacturing COVID-19 related medical equipment. This has been a boost in our pride of American manufacturing and its continued comeback over the past few years. Measured, steady, and decisive. This is what we’ve told ourselves at Optimation throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic. From the very beginning our team is thinking critically about preventing the spread of COVID-19; all while maintaining business operations vital to our clients and community. We have more than accomplished our primary goal of keeping our teammates and their families safe. There continues to be different perspectives on COVID-19 response and what the best option is when considering all stakeholders and complicated issues. This is a healthy debate and will likely allow us to strike a good balance on decisions moving forward. As an Environmental, Health and Safety professional, I must look at risk from the perspective of what is, or is not, an acceptable level. Optimation is a supplier of industrial fabrication, construction, and engineering services to critical infrastructure such as food production, pharmaceuticals/medical devices, and aerospace/defense.

Health, Safety, and Environmental processes directly impact every aspect of an engineering and construction project. We understand this at Optimation, which is why we have worked hard to develop a total approach to HSE challenges. Our HSE process is integral to our operations whether we are moving a manufacturing line from one plant to another, designing and fabricating a new line from client specifications, or providing additional multi-engineering and skilled trades services.  The reason behind this is clear: when an organization integrates HSE programs into everyday roles and responsibilities, you get improved - bottom up/top down performance.  What is already known and proven is that HSE performance is measurable both qualitatively and quantitatively. Lower incident and injury rates ultimately mean lower employee turnover, higher productivity, and lower overhead costs. This translates into completion of a project on time, on budget, and without incident.

The introduction of collaborative robots (cobots) in manufacturing has presented some unique safety challenges for production workers, engineers, managers, and safety professionals. In my opinion, cobots represent the ingenuity driven by continual process improvement for sustainable and safe work.