Lockout Tagout

TagLink is currently being used to initiate, track, and control Lockout Tagout isolations, Hotwork, and Confined Space events in electrical power generation plants, manufacturing plants, chemical plants, and municipalites throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico as well as other parts of the world.

Previous work performed to build lockout tagouts, hotwork permits, or confined space permits can be reused or modified as required to meet the needs of the specific situation with just a few mouse clicks without having to start from scratch.

TagLink Forms and functionality can also be customized to meet local facility and industry requirements for your unique situation.

Both new and established safety programs can take advantage of TagLink's powerful tools to facilitate standardization while dramatically improving efficiency and plant safety. Oversight tools are provided for both centralized and decentralized management requirements and reporting.

All of the required paperwork and tags are generated by TagLink software and NO SPECIAL PRINTERS are required to work with TagLink.

Templates

Typically, when a piece of equipment or system needs a lockout tagout performed to isolate hazardous energy, an operator needs to review the plant configuration, all safety documentation, and hand-write the documentation specifying the equipment to be isolated, isolation points, reason for the isolation, associated work orders, special instructions, approval authority, names of personnel authorized to perform the repair or maintenance work and make a tag for each isolation point.

Templates are used to capitalize on work that has already been done and minimize administrative labor costs. Once an isolation boundary has been approved for a specific piece of equipment or system for a specific task, the next time that same equipment needs a lockout tagout isolation performed, the template allows TagLink to generate all of the required safety paperwork and tags in as little as 3 mouse clicks. This is much easier and faster for the operator, provides a consistent isolation boundary, and reduces down-time for the equipment. Facilities realize cost savings through improved efficiency and greater productivity.

Templates can also be modified by supervisors to accomodate changes in plant configuration and can be copied to minimize rework for similar pieces of equipment or for similar jobs that require a different isolation boundary.

Once a template is selected for lockout tagout, if there are modifications that need to be made to the isolation boundary for that specific job, the tagout isolation points can be changed as necessary before the tagout is issued without modifying the template.

Templates are stored in the TagLink database and the powerful search tools allow operators to quickly locate the appropriate template and generate tagout documents and tags easily, quickly, accurately, and legibly.

To provide assurance that the isolation boundary is accurate and will provide a safe working environment, templates can only be approved for use by supervisors or by specific personnel based on permissions in the TagLink Security Module.

Skills & Security

TagLink provides administrators the ability to track authorized employees qualifications and Lockout Tagout Safety training through back-end tools and generate reports. This is especially helpful when making the determiniations for which personnel are qualified to perform which jobs.

The list of qualifications is editable by local TagLink administrators.

The TagLink Security Module allows for both Group Security and Individual Security levels.

Group Security is editable by local TagLink administrators including the ability to change Group names and any of over 60 different attributes. When personnel are added as TagLink users, they are assigned to a group and inherit all of the permissions of that group. This allows administrators to quickly modify permissions for eveyone assigned to that group based on qualifications or level of authority.

There are situations where certain personnel may not yet be qualified for all of the rights of a particular role in TagLink and therefore we have included a more granular Individual Security allowing for personnel to be part of a group, but have less permission in TagLink.

An example of this type of situation is when a new supervisor is hired, but is not yet qualified to approve an isolation. Using TagLink's Security Module, The new supervisor could still be part of the Supervisor's Group, but not be allowed to issue a lockout tagout until qualified.

Conversely, if an operator has earned the trust of the supervisors and facility regulations allow, that individual may be part of the Operator's Group, but have elevated rights within TagLink.

Integration

Most facilities incorporate a computerized work order system. TagLink has builtin links to many of the commercially available Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS). These links allow work order data to be pulled from the CMMS and used by TagLink to create isolations without having to retype or write information. TagLink creates an association between the work order and the lockout tagout isolation and includes the information in the documents produced. Multiple workorders can be assigned to the same isolation and TagLink will not allow the isolation to be closed until all of the work orders have been signed off as being completed.

We also provide services where an export of the equipment in your CMMS can be transformed and imported into the TagLink database. This allows for consistent naming through both your CMMS and TagLink.

Queries against the CMMS work order database can be modified by local TagLink administrators to fit your needs.

We have integration solutions out of the box for the systems listed below and we also offer an XML integration solution to minimize development costs for connecting to systems that aren't in the list. If you prefer, we can develop a custom integration solution as needed.

Seamless links to Computerized Maintenance Management systems including:

Outage Control

Outages are major events that require extensive planning, preparation, accuracy, and coordination. TagLink is designed to help all levels of management and operations through all phases of outages, both planned and unplanned. TagLink provides all of the tools that you need to manage the isolations required during an outage in one application.

Templates that are specific to outages can be developed from combinations of previously made isolation templates and incorporated with specific special instructions and procedures unique to that outage. During the review process, hyperlinks to documents, schematics, drawings, and even movies can be included in the procedures area of both the lockout tagout and the template. Any special instruction that operators need can be easily inserted and referenced during all phases of the outage.

Using your pre-made templates to guide the lockout tagout as well as the exact procedures for the isolation of systems, much of the work is already done, reducing the amount of time and labor required upfront. The tagouts can be pre-staged in TagLink and when the time arrives to execute the outage, all of the documentation can be printed including tags. All the operators need to do is follow the instructions for the isolations, apply the locks, and hang the tags as documented in your approved procedures from the template.

Keeping an eye on the status of the outage is simplified using the powerful tools in TagLink. A quick report can provide supervisors and other management with current status of isolation points for any piece of equipment in the plant. Other tools provide visibility to active, cleared, and unissued tagouts for a specific part of the plant or for the entire plant.

Auditing tools provide greater clarity and understanding of the events that occured during the outage including the who, what, where, when, and why for the isolations that took place. Any reports or documents that need to be customized to meet your situational requirements can be duplicated by us or with the correct tools, you may make your own modifications.