Ensuring your maintenance team's health and safety is critical when managing physical assets. Safety programs impact every aspect of operations, from regulatory compliance and employee retention to production efficiency and asset reliability.
In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about maintenance safety, from conducting proper risk assessments and setting up safety protocols, to building a culture that protects your team while keeping operations running smoothly.
Key takeaways
- Proactive risk assessments are crucial before starting any maintenance task to identify and mitigate potential hazards to your team.
- You must integrate clear, accessible safety procedures, including lockout/tagout procedures, directly into your maintenance work orders to ensure compliance.
- Consistent safety training for all technicians ensures everyone understands protocols and uses personal protective equipment correctly for each job.
- Using a mobile-first platform helps standardize safety protocols, improve team communication, and document compliance across all maintenance activities.
What is safety in maintenance?
Maintenance safety is a complete approach to protecting workers, equipment, and operations during repair and maintenance activities. This applies across manufacturing, logistics, food and beverage, and industrial facilities. The best maintenance safety programs spot hazards before they happen, give workers clear procedures to follow, and keep equipment running without putting anyone at risk.
Maintenance work presents unique workplace safety challenges that require careful planning and preparation. Safety in maintenance is about providing a work environment free of risks associated with your maintenance activities.
Your technicians regularly perform non-routine tasks in challenging conditions, including:
- Confined spaces: Equipment interiors, tanks, and enclosed areas with limited access
- Extreme environments: High temperatures, chemical exposure, or elevated work areas
- Time pressure: Urgent repairs during costly downtime periods that increase injury risk
- Complex procedures: Disassembly and reassembly of critical production equipment
Protecting workers and their safety in these situations is the number-one job for any maintenance leader.
Why maintenance safety matters for operations
Maintenance ensures equipment reliability. Improperly maintained machinery becomes unreliable and faulty. Fewer breakdowns mean your team spends less time around dangerous equipment during emergency repairs.
Maintenance safety is also a regulatory requirement. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has guidelines for the U.S. Other countries also provide workplace safety regulations. For example, Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) and the UK's Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER) also regulate workplace safety and health.
How to conduct a risk assessment before maintenance work begins
Before any maintenance work begins, you need to know what could go wrong and how to prevent it. This helps your team prevent accidents and near misses before they happen while also ensuring equipment runs as efficiently as possible.
Job hazard analysis process
Here's how to spot and control safety risks:
- Break down the task: Divide maintenance work into individual steps
- Identify hazards: Spot potential safety risks at each step
- Choose controls: Create specific preventive measures for each hazard
- Document findings: Attach assessment to work orders for technician reference
For example, a maintenance manager at a food processing facility replacing a conveyor motor must assess electrical hazards from 480V power sources, risks of stored energy in pneumatic systems, and ergonomic strains from lifting 50-pound components.
The job hazard analysis (JHA) would require lockout/tagout (LOTO) procedures for electrical and pneumatic isolation, arc flash personal protective equipment (PPE) for electrical work, and lifting equipment or team support for motor installation.
Essential safety rules during maintenance
Here are three critical rules to follow to ensure workplace safety for your maintenance technicians:
1. Provide appropriate equipment, tools, and training
Your maintenance team needs various tools and equipment to perform maintenance tasks safely. For example, you must provide personal protective equipment to protect them against exposure to hazardous substances like asbestos or pesticides, or other hazards, like falling objects.
Every piece of equipment needs clear instructions so technicians don't get hurt if they use it improperly. LOTO instructions are an excellent example. LOTO is a safety procedure that ensures maintenance technicians completely shut down hazardous equipment before starting repair work.
You must train the maintenance team to determine if the equipment is suitable for a specific environment. For example, your team must never use a sparking tool in a flammable environment.
Make sure the equipment fits each technician properly and won't strain their body during long jobs.
2. Provide access to complete information
Making sure critical information and safety guidelines are visible across the shop floor is essential to ensure worker safety. Placing barriers and signs to mark hazardous areas and prevent unauthorized access to those work areas is a good starting point.
The shopfloor must be clean, and technicians need a safe route to enter and exit the site wherever they perform maintenance. In addition, some repair locations may require temporary ventilation and proper lockout to protect the machinery.
Work orders must include photos and diagram labels explaining all safety procedures necessary to perform maintenance. For example, pressing the wrong switch leads to accidents that a safety label could easily avoid.
Technicians also need access to maintenance and repair history to identify potential issues and previous accidents. A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) helps ensure technicians have all the information at their fingertips, similar to how Southeast Power transformed their fleet operations from "organized chaos" to a streamlined system with complete asset histories and standard operating procedures (SOPs) accessible on mobile devices.
3. Provide thorough safety instructions
Ensure technicians access maintenance health and safety instructions for all maintenance tasks. When creating work orders, include safety instructions for each task and be specific. Add instructions to handle each machine part and high-risk activity required to complete the maintenance task.
Each task needs an expected duration. Each procedure must end with a test confirming the machine is safe for others to use. If the technician has questions about a maintenance task, they need to be able to reach out to you or a relevant person for help. Using a CMMS with in-app chat capabilities ensures the safety of maintenance workers.
Safety training requirements for maintenance teams
Giving your team the right tools and information only works if they know how to use them safely. The law doesn't just require regular safety training, it's also what keeps your operations running smoothly.
As a maintenance manager, you are responsible for ensuring every technician has the knowledge to perform their work without endangering themselves or others.
Essential maintenance safety training topics
Your training program must cover essential topics relevant to your facility, including:
- Personal protective equipment: Training on how to properly select, wear, and maintain PPE for different tasks.
- Lockout/tagout: In-depth instruction on de-energizing equipment and preventing the release of hazardous energy during service.
- Hazard communication: Educating your team on how to read safety data sheets (SDS) and handle hazardous chemicals safely.
- Confined space entry: Specialized training for technicians who perform work in spaces with limited entry or egress and potential atmospheric hazards.
- Electrical safety: Awareness of shock, arc flash, and electrocution hazards and the procedures to reduce them.
Training is not a one-and-done thing. Your team needs regular refreshers and hands-on practice until safety becomes automatic.
Best practices for comprehensive maintenance safety programs
Rules and regulations matter, but the best safety programs start with getting everyone on board. This involves creating an environment where safety is a shared value, not just a managerial mandate. Your leadership is central to building this culture.
Building a safety-first culture
Include these best practices into your operations:
- Lead by example: Always follow safety protocols yourself. When your team sees you prioritizing safety, they are more likely to do the same.
- Involve your technicians: Encourage your team to report near-misses and suggest safety improvements without fear of blame. They are on the front line and often have the best insights into potential hazards.
- Conduct regular safety meetings: Use brief toolbox talks to discuss specific hazards related to upcoming jobs, review recent incidents or near-misses, and reinforce key safety procedures.
- Continuously improve: Treat every incident and near-miss as a learning opportunity. Investigate the root cause and update your procedures to prevent a recurrence.
When everyone works together on safety, it stops feeling like rules you have to follow and starts feeling like looking out for each other.
How technology improves maintenance safety
MaintainX is a mobile-friendly CMMS that helps you set up safety measures more efficiently. For example, a manager can create and assign reactive work order procedures during an emergency from the spot of the breakdown, eliminating the time needed to get back to the office and assign a team.
Also, you can attach all safety procedures for that particular asset to the work order. Once technicians have completed the repair and the machine is back up, technicians using the digital work order can upload pictures to add context about potential asset and safety issues.
With a maintenance management system, technicians have complete visibility over repair and maintenance history. In addition, they can view all maintenance activities using MaintainX on their mobile phone and use the built-in chat feature in case they have questions.
MaintainX customers report significant reductions in unplanned downtime, directly adding capacity while maintaining the highest safety standards. Facilities like Electro Cycle increase their preventive maintenance ratio from 40:60 to 70:30.
The final word on maintenance safety
Many maintenance teams still rely on outdated, paper-based systems that put workers at risk and limit operational visibility. A proactive approach to workplace safety requires modern tools that empower frontline teams with real-time access to safety procedures, asset history, and instant communication.
When your technicians have the digital tools and clear procedures they need to work safely and efficiently, you reduce workplace safety risks while improving asset uptime. This is how you keep the physical world running reliably and safely.
Ready to update your maintenance safety program with a mobile-first platform built for industrial operations? Sign Up for Free and see how MaintainX helps over 12,000 customers reduce unplanned downtime while maintaining the highest safety standards.
Maintenance Safety FAQs
What are the five basic rules for safe maintenance in manufacturing and industrial facilities?
The five basic workplace safety rules for maintenance teams in asset-intensive industries are:
1) Conduct a complete risk assessment before starting work.
2) Use proper LOTO procedures on all equipment.
3) Select and use appropriate PPE for each task.
4) Ensure you properly maintain all tools and verify they suit the specific job.
5) Maintain clear communication with operations personnel throughout the maintenance activity.
How do preventive maintenance schedules improve workplace safety for manufacturing teams?
Preventive maintenance programs significantly reduce workplace safety risks by minimizing unexpected equipment failures that often require emergency repairs under time pressure. Well-maintained equipment operates more predictably, and scheduled preventive maintenance tasks allow maintenance managers to conduct proper hazard assessments, allocate appropriate resources, and ensure technicians have the right safety equipment before work begins.
What safety equipment is essential for maintenance technicians in asset-intensive manufacturing operations?
Essential PPE for maintenance teams in manufacturing facilities typically includes hard hats, safety glasses, steel-toed boots, and high-visibility clothing as baseline protection. Depending on specific tasks, technicians may also need hearing protection, chemical-resistant gloves, respirators for environments with airborne contaminants, and fall protection equipment for elevated work areas.
How do maintenance managers conduct risk assessments before equipment repairs in industrial facilities?
Maintenance managers implement a structured JHA process that breaks each repair task into steps, identifies potential workplace safety hazards at each step, and documents specific preventive measures or controls such as LOTO procedures, required PPE, or specialized tools. Managers document this assessment and attach it to work orders so technicians have clear safety guidance before starting work.
The MaintainX team is made up of maintenance and manufacturing experts. They’re here to share industry knowledge, explain product features, and help workers get more done with MaintainX!
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