The sequence
- Attempt to reach the person who fitted the lock
- Involve the department manager and the safety specialist
- Notify the person
- Written report — area, equipment, person
- Approval
- Removal and lock removal notification form
Why it is this long
Because the only assurance a lock offers is that it is hard to remove. Once a short cut exists, the lock stops signalling that energy is isolated and becomes a formality. The length of the process is not inefficiency; it is the barrier itself.
The real question before cutting
"We cannot reach the person" is not sufficient grounds. The real question is: could somebody still be behind that lock? Approval should not be given before the equipment is checked, the area visually swept and the group box emptied.
Afterwards
Lock removals are a statistic. How often they happen in a year, on which shift and in which area, indicates the health of the system: frequent removals usually mean the shift handover rule is not working.
What software can do here
On paper the removal form sits in a cabinet; in a system, because the lock record is tied to a person, "whose lock, fitted when, approved by whom" is answered from one record. In the set we measured that link did not exist — the lock was physical and the record lived somewhere else.