Our company, Cranston Material Handling Equipment Corporation (CMHEC), founded in 1957, sells and installs industrial material handling equipment. Historically, we subcontracted out the installation of all our equipment. Approximately 10 years ago, in order to provide a higher level of service to our customers, our team decided to hire employees to install the equipment we sold. We soon learned developing an ongoing safety program was challenging as a small company. While we had a sincere desire to have a thorough workable safety program, the reality was we just did not have the expertise to develop one.

Over the last several years a trend was developing. Our industrial customer base began using 3rd-party companies to compile safety data on the contractors working in their facilities. After they compiled the data, they could see where gaps existed in the contractor’s safety programs or documentation. These gaps were then requested to be remedied prior to the contractor becoming qualified to perform work. Through these 3rd-party companies, industrial manufacturers are able to ensure contractors have the safety training and insurances in place to meet their standards. While this works well for large industrial companies hiring contractors, it is challenging for small companies to wade through all of the requirements, decide which ones are applicable to the company, and develop documentation and training to meet said requirements.

As a number of our customers began to use the 3rd-party company ISNetworld (ISN) to manage their contractors, we quickly became overwhelmed with trying to meet their requirements. Another company, similar to ours, referred us to Lancaster Safety Consulting Inc. (LSCI). LSCI helped them upgrade their safety program in order to meet the customer’s requirements ISN managed through their website. Since working with LSCI, we have been impressed with their efforts to understand our business and help us develop programs applicable to the work we do. In a timely manner, LSCI developed our written safety programs, provided in-person training for our crew, and worked with us to provide the required documentation to our customers through the web-based ISN safety documentation portal.

LSCI also helped us answer a valuable question: “what is our installer’s exposure to silica dust?” While not a requirement for documentation, for the safety of our employees we wanted to be certain we were not exposing them to an unacceptable level of silica. While we assumed it was low and within standards, there was no way to know without proper testing. LSCI was able to provide us with an on-site test and analysis of the results to make sure we were compliant with current standards.

LSCI has proven itself to be a reliable ongoing resource to keep our safety program up to date. They continuously coach us in the understanding of safety within the workplace while meeting the ongoing insurance and safety compliance requests we regularly receive from our customers. Over time they will be training new members of our installation crew to keep our training consistent, and we will be taking advantage of additional training LSCI offers.

Over the last nine months, we have moved from a company struggling to meet our customer’s safety requirements to a company with a current and robust safety program. From a company with limited ability to get safety training and documentation advice to one that has a partner in LSCI – keeping our program relevant and up to date. Since LSCI is only an email or phone call away, we are confident we can accurately answer all of our safety questions in a timely manner.