“Who removed the warning sign?”
The supervisor was not happy.
The sign had been placed beside a machine after a small hand injury.
Everyone knew the area was dangerous.
But the sign was gone.
The safety engineer had removed it.
The supervisor stared at him.
“Why would you remove a safety warning?”
The engineer pointed at the operator.
“He was reaching into the machine every few minutes.”
The operator explained why.
“The machine jams here. I have to clear it.”
The warning sign had not stopped him.
It had simply become part of the background.
So the engineer tried something else.
He changed the machine.
A small sensor detected the jam condition and stopped the machine automatically before the operator could reach the danger point.
No reminder.
No warning sticker.
No dependence on memory.
The hazard had been controlled at its source.
That is the thinking behind engineering controls and mistake-proofing.
The strongest safety system does not depend only on people remembering to be careful.
Don’t just tell people to avoid the mistake.
Design the process so the mistake is harder to make.
Now or Never
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