Thousands of workplace injuries and dozens of fatalities each year are linked to handling hazardous energy incorrectly. OSHA reports that compliance with Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) standards prevents around 120 fatalities and 50,000 injuries annually (in just the US alone). However, the reality in many facilities remains to be that energy isolation relies on outdated, manual systems that allow for human error and gaps in compliance. In high-risk environments such as paper mills, mines, or nuclear energy facilities, one misstep can lead to serious consequences. This is why Total Resource Management is presenting the case that modern technology-enabled digital LOTO solutions are more urgent than ever in your organization.
From the Clipboard to the Cloud: Manual vs. Digital LOTO
Paper-based, manual LOTO processes were the standard in the past, relying on printed ledgers, handwritten tags, and physical lockout equipment to control hazardous energy in the plant. All isolation points had to be logged one by one and often required sign-offs from multiple people. Then, supervisors manually verified that the proper procedure was completed.
When this exact plan is followed it is effective, but it is still inefficient, accident-prone, and lacking transparency. For example, paper tags could have been duplicated or lost, people could use others’ logins which compromises security, and having to validate each step could cause unplanned stop time on tasks, increasing both downtime and costs.
Best practices in the manual era included:
Standardized tags and forms for consistency
Clear authorization and sign-off hierarchy
Strict physical control of locks and keys
Ongoing training and periodic safety audits
Accurate log keeping and communication across teams
Today, modern digital LOTO technologies have transformed this process. Modern digital LOTO technologies transform this process. Integrated with Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) systems like IBM Maximo, today’s solutions offer real-time tracking, automated validation, and role-based access, ensuring procedures are enforced consistently across teams. Prebuilt LOTO plans can be tied directly to work orders, avoiding re-entry of data and reducing downtime. Mobile access allows your team to follow and confirm isolation procedures without returning to a control room, while dashboards give supervisors live oversight of safety compliance across the whole facility. This increases safety and regulatory compliance, and improves operational efficiency, avoiding the bottlenecks of traditional paper systems.
LOTO Across Industries
From manufacturing to oil and gas, water treatment to utilities, LOTO technology reduces risk while enhancing productivity. In manufacturing, digital systems prevent machines from restarting until all isolation points are cleared. In the oil and gas industry, preplanned LOTO procedures minimize delays during major turnarounds. In utilities and power generation, integrations link isolation steps to asset hierarchies, ensuring energy control is tightly managed and auditable. These capabilities protect your team as well as your organization’s uptime, reputation, and bottom line.
Total Resource Management Case Study: LOTO Manager Implementation at a Coal-Based Power Plant
A coal-based power plant, part of a major energy supplier, sought to replace IBM Maximo’s limited LOTO capabilities with a more secure, efficient, and compliant solution for managing hazardous energy. TRM implemented its LOTO Manager, built on TRM’s RulesManager platform, providing an electronic, real-time sign-in system; dynamic safety tagging; role-based access rules; and dashboards for supervisors. This eliminated paper-based logging, prevented duplicate tag creation, and established a structured, auditable release process aligned to OSHA energy isolation standards.
The system enabled preplanning of all LOTO requirements for maintenance outages, with direct links to preventive maintenance and work orders. Group leaders could manage sign-ins for contractors but could not sign out until all crew members were cleared, ensuring no steps were skipped. Process validation identified all required isolation points before work began, replacing time-consuming step-by-step checks with an approved, verified plan.
Within five months, the plant moved from a slow, manual ledger to a fully digital LOTO environment. They increased safety and compliance, improved asset location data, and streamlined maintenance workflows, reducing the risk of costly violations and unplanned downtime. The transformation underscored how modern LOTO technology delivers both life-saving safety improvements and tangible operational benefits.
Conclusion
The move from manual LOTO to newer digital systems changes the landscape for efficiency and most importantly, safety. As the coal power plant case study shows, modern LOTO tools make it easier to understand and follow procedures, decrease mistakes, and provide supervisors with immediate insight into what is going on in the facility. These solutions help protect your team, prevent expensive downtime, and keep operations up and running as they should be across industries. If you are in a high-risk environment, adopting modern LOTO is essential to keep your team safe and your organization running at its best.
Trelleborg has developed a product, that can withstand a jet fire - the cause of the Piper Alpha disaster. The product is already in use on several platforms, primarily in the North Sea. To date, some NOK 7 million in development costs- has been invested annually. These costs are shared by the project sponsors, comprising the Norwegian government and a number of oil companies. Continued development is not expected to be as costly and will focus more on handling other derivatives, such as gas and oil, and possibly being able to offer a material in other colors for customers who wish to customize their equipment using their own color schemes.
Trelleborg has developed a product, that can withstand a jet fire - the cause of the Piper Alpha disaster. The product is already in use on several platforms, primarily in the North Sea. To date, some NOK 7 million in development costs- has been invested annually. These costs are shared by the project sponsors, comprising the Norwegian government and a number of oil companies. Continued development is not expected to be as costly and will focus more on handling other derivatives, such as gas and oil, and possibly being able to offer a material in other colors for customers who wish to customize their equipment using their own color schemes.
Having a thorough understanding of what first aid skills for maintenance workers look like and why they matter is so critical. While the hope is that you never have to use the knowledge, it can be the difference between life and death in an urgent situation.
Having a thorough understanding of what first aid skills for maintenance workers look like and why they matter is so critical. While the hope is that you never have to use the knowledge, it can be the difference between life and death in an urgent situation.
Have safety efforts gravitated into the back seat driver technique being applied in your workplace? When an employee’s actions are observed as not in accordance with the safety rules and procedures, their error is brought to their attention. The workplace reality is that this error often goes unaddressed, or even unobserved, until a safety incident occurs. The safety incident becomes the trigger for an investigation. The investigation determines what actions led up to the safety incident and often stop at the point of identifying the human error. The resulting corrective measures attempt to contain the human error by revising policies, enhancing procedures, retraining employees, punishing offenders, or some combination thereof. Such corrective measures lag behind the worker’s thought process.
Have safety efforts gravitated into the back seat driver technique being applied in your workplace? When an employee’s actions are observed as not in accordance with the safety rules and procedures, their error is brought to their attention. The workplace reality is that this error often goes unaddressed, or even unobserved, until a safety incident occurs. The safety incident becomes the trigger for an investigation. The investigation determines what actions led up to the safety incident and often stop at the point of identifying the human error. The resulting corrective measures attempt to contain the human error by revising policies, enhancing procedures, retraining employees, punishing offenders, or some combination thereof. Such corrective measures lag behind the worker’s thought process.
Because maintenance departments are often recognized as caretakers of company safety initiatives, they're inundated with all things safety: messages, procedures, meetings, checks, equipment, training and permits, etc. Despite their good intentions, however, some maintenance professionals still get hurt on the job. To understand why, we need only to draw a parallel with automobile accidents.
Because maintenance departments are often recognized as caretakers of company safety initiatives, they're inundated with all things safety: messages, procedures, meetings, checks, equipment, training and permits, etc. Despite their good intentions, however, some maintenance professionals still get hurt on the job. To understand why, we need only to draw a parallel with automobile accidents.
U.S. fire departments receive an estimated 42,800 reports of fires from industrial and manufacturing facilities each year, according to the NFPA. Fire prevention and emergency action plans are two tools to ensure employees know what to do before and after a fire alarm sounds.
U.S. fire departments receive an estimated 42,800 reports of fires from industrial and manufacturing facilities each year, according to the NFPA. Fire prevention and emergency action plans are two tools to ensure employees know what to do before and after a fire alarm sounds.
In this advisory, we are going to demonstrate how hazardous, documented, service, repair, and troubleshooting recommendations have proliferated the fluid power industry, leaving unsuspecting persons vulnerable to possible injury or death. Unsafe service, repair, and troubleshooting recommendations are running rampant throughout the fluid power industry - and there is no end in sight!
In this advisory, we are going to demonstrate how hazardous, documented, service, repair, and troubleshooting recommendations have proliferated the fluid power industry, leaving unsuspecting persons vulnerable to possible injury or death. Unsafe service, repair, and troubleshooting recommendations are running rampant throughout the fluid power industry - and there is no end in sight!
The fact is, shop safety in the U.S. and Europe has dramatically improved over the past few decades. Many unsafe acts accepted in the past are forbidden today. The idea of working without fall protection or lockout-tagout (LOTO) procedures is widely condemned by workers, management and supervision. Still, too many people get grievously hurt or even killed at work.
The fact is, shop safety in the U.S. and Europe has dramatically improved over the past few decades. Many unsafe acts accepted in the past are forbidden today. The idea of working without fall protection or lockout-tagout (LOTO) procedures is widely condemned by workers, management and supervision. Still, too many people get grievously hurt or even killed at work.
