MHI Solutions Improving Supply Chain Performance
A double girder crane PHOTO PROVIDED BY EXPERT CRANE
The Crane, Hoist and Monorail (CHM) Alliance serves as a liaison for overhead lifting companies to OSHA, teaming with the federal agency to promote a wide range of safety initiatives in the field. The alliance represents three overhead lifting groups—Crane, Hoist and Monorail, respectively—within MHI. The alliance’s collaborative efforts with OSHA are proving to be invaluable to the industry and its safety priorities.
OSHA recently renewed the CHM Alliance for the second time because of the alliance’s efforts to promote safety priorities in a variety of ways. Based on the extent of those efforts, OSHA granted the alliance Ambassador status, a sign of the strength of its relationship with OSHA.
“We took it as a badge of honor,” said Rose Haire, the industry groups manager at MHI who works with the alliance.
Haire said the alliance gives the overhead lifting industry a vital way to connect directly with OSHA and share with them the important trends that they are seeing and experiencing firsthand.
“If we see an uptick in a certain type of accident or want to call attention to a particular problem, we have contacts and liaisons with OSHA for that,” Haire said. “That’s really important to us.”
Among its collaborations with OSHA has been a series of promotions focused on the need for anyone working above six feet to have adequate fall protection.
“Our groups are heavily involved in that area because our service technicians must be aloft a great deal of time to inspect cranes and hoists,” Haire said.
For the past several years, the alliance also has teamed with OSHA in the summer months to focus on heat illness prevention because of rising temperatures and the increased risk for workers in the field, particularly those on cranes or managing other overhead-related tasks.
Another focus for the CHM Alliance has been OSHA’s Safe + Sound Week. Alliance members treat the annual week as an opportunity to put a spotlight on key safety initiatives and to underline their broader safety culture in a way that can extend to throughout the year.
“A lot of our member companies take that time to conduct safety reviews and talks—what they call ‘toolbox talks’—and other activities of that nature,” Haire said.
Member organizations can coordinate their individual safety promotion efforts through the alliance, taking advantage of OSHA’s myriad resources, including websites, videos, reports, swag, banners and a range of promotional items. Some alliance members have made short films of their safety talks and shared them via social media, where the hashtag #liftsafe is used by alliance members.
“They use many different avenues to get the word out—not only to their employees, but to their clientele, and to further ripple out to the rest of the industry,” Haire said.
Haire said the ongoing coordinated efforts with OSHA demonstrate an enduring commitment to safety by the overhead lifting industry and the CHM Alliance’s members.
“It shows our deep investment in the idea that we want our equipment to be used safely, and that safety is always at the heart of any usage of it,” Haire said. “We have standards and specifications that we utilize for our equipment. We want to adhere to those, we want to adhere to OSHA standards and we want anyone using our equipment to be safe.”