Of course you do. Machinery is everywhere: all that production equipment; maintenance equipment like mills lathes, welders; equipment moving equipment such as cranes, cherry pickers, fork lifts, chain falls and jacks. Power tools to assemble, produce and fix. There’s even people moving equipment: pickups, cars, busses, golf carts and even good old fashioned bicycles. You couldn’t run your business without them.
With rare exception, machines perform as designed. They do their jobs well – and safely. By their very nature and design, machines can’t get hurt.
On the other hand, we humans have the advantage of something a machine does not have: a brain. Put a tool in our hands – or put us around a machine – we always have a choice. We can to do something the right way – or the wrong way.
And unlike a machine, our choices can – and do – get us hurt.
Paul Balmert
October 2017
