I have noticed a recent trend with preventable injury occurring with employers that make or modify their own machines. Luckily for them, these injuries have been somewhat minor—or at least not as bad as they could have been.
This led me to wonder, why would anyone make or modify their own machines? Doing so directly eliminates any subrogation chances, and thus a way to be reimbursed for monies spent on work comp claims due to machine design or malfunction. It is almost like shooting yourself in the foot, especially if you are self-insured since that money is coming right out of your own pocket.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand the positives for creating, fabricating, and modifying machines. Obviously there is a production need for whatever widget you are making. However if you were to look at it from the outside in, why would you create your own exposure?
Take a look at the following examples, and hopefully you will think twice about doing this on your own job floor:
Self-Manufactured Machine With Great Injury History
A company makes fasteners, about the size of a dime or quarter, for various business needs. They have many clients and many manufacturing needs for these fasteners. They created 4 machines, hydraulically ran and using air to assist the machine operation. An employee of 27 years, who is also a product engineer, was doing his normal job making prototypes for a client. There are no guards on the machine at all. By habit he put his hand in the pinch point of the machine between moving parts while leaning over to engage the machine. The end result was his hand being caught between the moving shaft and the target point. Luckily for him, he only sustained multiple fractures of two fingers on his non-dominant hand and about 20 sutures to sew him back up.
Upon investigation from the adjuster, the worker said he just had his hand in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even better, this was his first work comp injury after 20+ years using the same machine. On one hand (no pun intended) it is good that he went that long without injury, and that the injury was not much, much worse. On the other hand, there are no subro chances as the insured created the machine over 20+ years ago to meet their production needs.
The funny thing is that the machine was never updated, never looked at, and never modified within that 20-year range. You would think that maybe at some point in the 20 years someone would have looked at those machines and thought to get an outside opinion. But since they never created any issues they were never looked at. Of course, now they are fabricating guards for all 4 of the machines, and luckily for them this injury did not result in amputations or worse.
Food Manufacturer Sees Rash of Injuries on Production Line
Another example is a food manufacturer that created their production lines. Their product comes down in assembly-line formation, the workers grab stacks of product, place in boxes, and boxes are then placed in larger packaging boxes. It really was a great idea to create a wide-to-narrow funneling line which pushed more product quicker to the employee. Not only did it make product easier to grab, but it sped up the overall process. This was a recent modification, within the past couple years. Recently, a rash of lateral epicondylitis claims broke out. The employer could not figure out what the issue was until the carrier sent loss prevention people. What had happened was the rotating staff of workers included some that were of smaller stature than other employees, and they were newer hires. Instead of this work being at waist-to-chest level, the shorter workers were working at chest-to-neck levels. This created increased grasping needs, and the shorter workers were not using proper body mechanics.
Plus the new workers were not used to this fast-paced work environment, so it created a spike of claims in that particular line. The employer never considered making the line height adjustable or providing stools for shorter employees so they could be working at neutral height. These claims were not as severe, but had those new employees failed to report them timely, they would have required more extensive rehab including potential surgery and lost time away from work.
Avoid Making Your Own Machines, But At The Least Have a 3rd Party Review
The lesson here is to review your machinery and your production line modifications in your own shop. I recommend whenever possible not to create your own machines, as you eliminate your subrogation chances for future injuries. If you must create your own modifications, be sure to have an outside third party specialist review the machine and the modifications, and make corrections as advised. It will save you some injury headaches down the road.
Author Michael B. Stack, CPA, Principal, Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. is an expert in employer communication systems and part of the Amaxx team helping companies reduce their workers compensation costs by 20% to 50%. He is a writer, speaker, and website publisher. www.reduceyourworkerscomp.com. Contact: mstack@reduceyourworkerscomp.com.
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