Derek was making a routine visit to the European headquarters of Yamazaki Mazak, where he has been responsible for material handling for 22 years. The company is a manufacturer of machine tools, with some 600 employees based in Worcester. Terex provides proactive service for its customer, with responsibility for the maintenance of 96 items of Demag equipment, including overhead cranes, jib cranes, wire rope hoists and chain hoists. 

Derek’s first port of call was Mazak’s facilities manager, Chris Hoskins, to run through a list of reported material handling maintenance issues. On this occasion, there were no reported issues. After a safety induction course, Alan Gaskin was treated to a tour of the plant.

Visual safety aids

The fact that there were no reported maintenance actions required on this day did not mean that Derek was going to have a quiet time. As part of the visit, Derek planned to fit colour-coded stickers, indicating the direction of travel, to the overhead cranes. The stickers match the graphics on the control pendants and remote controllers, providing a visual safety feature for crane operators. This reduces the possibility of operators moving the crane in the wrong direction, which could cause personal injury or damage to valuable loads.

Safe working environment

Derek reported that access to lifting equipment is one of the biggest challenges facing service personnel. However, there were no such problems at the Mazak facility, where two 7m scissor lifts are available.

Before operating the scissor lift, Derek conducted a thorough visual examination and when confident that it was in good working order, he and Alan cordoned off the area beneath the crane on which they would be working: “In a busy working environment, with a high volume of fork lift traffic, it is important that the area in which we are working is clearly defined.”

Once the safe working environment had been established, Alan and Derek ascended, in the scissor lift to apply the colour coded travel direction stickers to the crane gantry.

Challenging risk for a safer workplace

The thorough preparations and safety precautions were followed repeatedly, with Alan and Derek applying stickers to five more crane gantries. After some four hours work, it was agreed that it was time for a well earned coffee break and the pair decamped to the canteen. During the break Alan questioned Derek about his day-to-day routine.

 

Derek explined: “The vast majority of customers have a total commitment to safe working practices. However, my Demag colleagues and I have experienced situations where there have been safety issues. In such circumstances, it is incumbent upon all of us to challenge risk, avoiding potential workplace accidents and injury.”

In response to Alan’s questions, regarding company support for service personnel, Derek stated that comprehensive product training was helping technicians to work efficiently on new products. He added that the service department’s administrators ensured that service personnel were allocated jobs best suited to their skill sets. Derek also confirmed that there was an appreciation of the time taken to complete a service or repair visit: “A rush job is a bad job, so we ensure that we allocate sufficient time to complete a service or repair, thoroughly, efficiently and safely.”

With the coffee break over, Alan and Derek returned to the factory floor to continue applying stickers to the gantries of the facility’s overhead cranes. 

Summarising his day, Alan stated: “My visit has provided me with an invaluable insight into the role of our service technicians and the challenges they face on a daily basis. The contribution and value of service technicians to the business should not be underestimated. Derek is respected throughout the Mazak site for his knowledge and commitment to workplace best practice, reinforcing the customer’s confidence in our products and services.”