subject: Risk Management and Cleaning Car Heaps - Carpel Tunnel Or OSHA Compliance - Case Study [print this page] Risk Management and Cleaning Car Heaps - Carpel Tunnel Or OSHA Compliance - Case Study
Risk management is important, even in a very little business. Before retirement I ran a franchising company, and we franchised mobile car wash units. One in every of our major market segments were new automotive tons, and large used-automotive tons like CarMax. We have a tendency to additionally washed for several automobile rental agencies. Clearly, we have a tendency to would wash while these cars were lined up in rows, and generally you could look down the tip of the row, and acquire yourself psyched out because of the quantity of cars you had to wash. Indeed, we have a tendency to cleaned for corporations like Daewoo, Hyundai, BMW as the cars were parked at the port after they came off of the ships and we have a tendency to additionally clean for auto auctions; in some cases there were in more than 600 to 5000 cars to clean. And even with a crew of five, ten, or even twenty people it had been absolutely overwhelming. There have been definite problems of fatigue, as the workflow progressed. And OSHA standards dictated that the pressure washing guns had to have a trigger release, so that if you dropped the high pressure washing gun, it might not whip around and hit you in the pinnacle, or permit the high pressure water to chop your eye apart. That produces sense correct, OSHA typically has rules and regulations to shield employee safety because they know there are hazards within the workplace, and this can be one amongst them. Nevertheless, we have a tendency to had one amongst our franchisee managers in Sacramento California develop carpal tunnel, and though he had a precondition from his work formally as a grocery clerk, he lost use of his right hand. This is because he had to stay pressing the gun off and on as he was cleaning the cars, and if he held the gun on all the time he was still putting pressure on his wrist as a result of the gun was spring-loaded, that manner it would automatically shut off if he dropped, as per OSHA safety regs. After this occurred what he would do is switch hands, and place a tennis ball in between the trigger and therefore the plastic housing that encased the trigger to keep the gun on all the time. This prevented carpal tunnel from preventing him from working. Different franchisees and their employees eventually did the same thing. On one hand we tend to had OSHA standards disallowing such practices, but in the $64000 world and in the sphere the workers and therefore the franchisees realized they had to beat muscle cramps, pain, and potential future carpal tunnel and that they had to return up with a resolution, and that is what they chose. Eventually we have a tendency to found that there were some manufacturers of pressure laundry guns, they did not have to OSHA standards in mind, and these guns had a special lock mechanism or ring which would keep the trigger on all the time. Several of our competitors were using guns while not triggers, everyone within the industry is aware of this is often a problem. When you're considering risk management, reducing risks, and handling hazards, these are the types of things that you may have to choose in an exceedingly tiny business. Please take into account all this.