What your fire extinguishers say about your business
What your fire extinguishers say about your business
Fire extinguishers are a prime example of showing the competency and maturity of your business. Your fire extinguisher program can either show off your gold standard of excellence or your weak points for lack of multi-departmental project management. Keeping your fire extinguishers in compliance shows that your company can follow input requirements from internal and external stakeholders as well as provide timely outcome deliverables.
Next time you are in your neighborhood shopping center, make sure to look at the fire extinguishers while you are doing your shopping. You will find a direct relationship with the business maturity and the inspection frequency on their fire extinguishers. Large chains such as Target or CVS will most likely have a month-to-month log, while your new record shop may still be focusing more efforts on the design and operation of their store.
Organizations such as Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) have rules that they tell your business to adhere to. They drive these requirements through standards such as OSHA 1910 or NFPA 10 and as a governing body, they expect that they are read, understood, and implemented.
Meanwhile, you are now given the responsibility of implementing and upkeep on a routine basis, which you then have to pass these requirements on to other departments of the company. Maintenance may oversee inspections. Supply chain may be responsible for the replacement of faulty units. HR may even be responsible for the training portion to make sure everyone knows how to discharge a fire extinguisher if needed.
You start to grow a systems requirement plan very quickly. Just one OSHA requirement can turn into six (or more) requirements!
While a fire extinguisher program may seem like a small job and can often be placed on the backburner of responsibilities, it shows how all parts of a company are connected to each other. With one weak chain, the whole program can fall apart, just like any business. When people say, “safety is everyone’s responsibility,” it does not mean that everyone is going around inspecting a fire extinguisher or making the calls on what is safe and what isn’t. It means that everyone is doing their job to create a safe workplace. One gap in a fire extinguisher program can lead to a faulty unit attempting to put out a fire. Likewise, a successful business is everyone’s responsibility. A gap in a business can bring a company to failure.
While a fire extinguisher program may seem like a small requirement for an effective fire prevention program or even a safety management program, it can be a great starting point to identify how departments work together and accomplish common goals.
