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 However, the reality in many facilities remains to be that energy isolation relies on outdated, manual systems that allow for human error and gaps in compliance.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.
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.
In 2001, close to 100,000 people were treated in U.S. Hospital emergency rooms for eye injuries related to the workplace, yet this figure actually only represents a small portion of the total number of injuries. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, each day, as many as 2,000 workers incur eye injuries related to their jobs. According to Prevent Blindness America (PBA), 90% of these injuries are preventable.
In 2001, close to 100,000 people were treated in U.S. Hospital emergency rooms for eye injuries related to the workplace, yet this figure actually only represents a small portion of the total number of injuries. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, each day, as many as 2,000 workers incur eye injuries related to their jobs. According to Prevent Blindness America (PBA), 90% of these injuries are preventable.
A chaotic or traumatic event can happen to anyone at any time or place. Would you be ready if it happened to you? Anything that threatens your sense of safety and security either physically or mentally can be considered a traumatic event. How well you respond to and recover from such events primarily depends on your overall state of well-being. Let's look at ways to develop the Internal Resources and External Resources you need to put yourself in the best possible position to deal with chaotic events.
A chaotic or traumatic event can happen to anyone at any time or place. Would you be ready if it happened to you? Anything that threatens your sense of safety and security either physically or mentally can be considered a traumatic event. How well you respond to and recover from such events primarily depends on your overall state of well-being. Let's look at ways to develop the Internal Resources and External Resources you need to put yourself in the best possible position to deal with chaotic events.
“Prevention is better than cure”, this proverb sounds rightly in case of maintenance also. If the maintenance is prevented, then the availability of the plant increases and the overall cost reduces. Every effort should be made to avoid maintenance, which can be achieved through continuous monitoring of equipment and upgrading the sophistication of the equipment through better design and process improvement.
“Prevention is better than cure”, this proverb sounds rightly in case of maintenance also. If the maintenance is prevented, then the availability of the plant increases and the overall cost reduces. Every effort should be made to avoid maintenance, which can be achieved through continuous monitoring of equipment and upgrading the sophistication of the equipment through better design and process improvement.
About 80 percent of maintenance mistakes involve human factors (HF), according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The maintenance world has unique HF issues that are more severe and longer lasting than elsewhere in aviation. Operators are looking at various techniques to combat HF challenges.
About 80 percent of maintenance mistakes involve human factors (HF), according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The maintenance world has unique HF issues that are more severe and longer lasting than elsewhere in aviation. Operators are looking at various techniques to combat HF challenges.
Reactive maintenance is here defined as all maintenance work that was scheduled less than 20 hours before it was executed. It makes sense that there is a strong correlation between safety incidents, injuries and reactive maintenance. In a reactive situation you might not take the time you should to plan and think before you take action. The urgency also call out the so common hero in maintenance crafts people and they take risks they should not take.
Reactive maintenance is here defined as all maintenance work that was scheduled less than 20 hours before it was executed. It makes sense that there is a strong correlation between safety incidents, injuries and reactive maintenance. In a reactive situation you might not take the time you should to plan and think before you take action. The urgency also call out the so common hero in maintenance crafts people and they take risks they should not take.
It’s all about cybersecurity risk management. No matter if your computing systems are in an on-premises data center, out in the cloud, or down in a mine shaft somewhere, protecting your data and intellectual property from those who wish to nefariously benefit from it is your mission. Managing the risk of intrusion requires a strategy, a framework, and a significant list of tactical activities to keep the baddies away.
It’s all about cybersecurity risk management. No matter if your computing systems are in an on-premises data center, out in the cloud, or down in a mine shaft somewhere, protecting your data and intellectual property from those who wish to nefariously benefit from it is your mission. Managing the risk of intrusion requires a strategy, a framework, and a significant list of tactical activities to keep the baddies away.
