Safety managers are well aware of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s standard for controlling hazardous energy, yet lockout is a discipline that few companies seem to get right. Bill Belongea, senior safety services program manager for Master Lock, says that only about 1 in 10 employers have a fully functioning, compliant lockout program. Lockout/tagout violations top the charts each year.

Businesses struggle with lockout because it’s a lot to manage, and it’s always changing. Even when facilities get compliant, they often lack the internal resources and assets to stay that way. “Once you think you’re done and you are in a compliance standpoint, the next day you’re not,” Belongea says.

“Lockout is an administrative control,” he says. “We’re relying on human compliance and continually updating the changes in our environment. Maybe a piece of equipment changes; well, now we have to change the lockout procedure for that piece of equipment, and we have to train our individuals on it.”

Read more: How Master Lock Makes Workplaces Safer Without Sacrificing Productivity

Lockout Is More Than Padlocks

Another obstacle facing employers is the mindset that padlocks are the sole solution to lockout. In reality, devices are just one part of a larger program.

“A lot of times, we talk to customers about lockout and they want to throw locks at the problem,” Belongea says. “But locks need to be used correctly. From a safety standpoint, safety managers and operations managers need to understand how to apply locks and devices to the equipment to get it down to zero energy. And that involves assessing your equipment and your environment, and knowing the types of machines you have and the different types of hazardous energies that go to a piece of equipment.”

These are the integral elements to an effective safety lockout program. “The journey is all the work that needs to be done before you get to that padlock: writing that policy, writing that procedure, conducting that training and then getting to that padlock,” he says.

Read more: Lockout Safety Procedures: 5 Elements Critical to Success

Businesses that don’t have the resources to create a comprehensive safety lockout program on their own—or that simply want help with strengthening what they do have—can rely on a lockout solutions professional.

“We provide an all-encompassing platform to guide an organization, not only from the padlock standpoint but also helping them develop equipment-specific procedures or a facility-specific lockout policy,” Belongea says. “And then we can provide authorized training based off of procedures that we have written for them.”

The Future of Lockout Is Here

Just as a successful lockout program involves many steps that lead up to the padlock, the future of safety and security extends beyond physical devices to connected solutions that provide greater visibility and control.

“I think the future is now,” Belongea says.

“Our approach is to allow those who are in charge of facilities to be able to see, either through their computer or through an app, what is going on in their facility—whether someone’s entering their facility or whether someone’s actually locking out a piece of equipment.”

Security-wise, Belongea says, “we’ve moved from a mechanical device to a connected device that allows individuals off-site to grant or deny access, so you can really understand who’s going into your environment and control access.”

Master Lock Vault provides enhanced workplace security via Bluetooth-enabled padlocks and 256-bit encryption software. “You don’t have to assign keys to people to get into a door or a gate,” he says. “You don’t have to worry about losing a key. You can simply grant them access on your phone, and you can also deny access just like that.”

Read more: Master Lock Pairs Bluetooth with Padlocks to Boost Workplace Security

For busy safety managers seeking a similar solution to their lockout program, there is Master Lock cLOTO. The connected lockout platform gives visibility into who’s applying locks to ensure that when workers are serving or performing maintenance on equipment, every isolation point is locked out every time. Through a centralized dashboard, managers can assign roles and permissions, manage equipment, and establish and update procedures.

“People are eager to have the ability to see what is going on in the facility, because they are wearing so many hats these days that you can’t be there every single time to watch someone lock something out and ensure that they’re doing it,” Belongea says.

What’s more, both connected solutions—Vault and cLOTO—create real-time audit trails that boost accountability.

Leading the Way to Connected Solutions

Master Lock, long known for being “tough under fire,” has adopted a new philosophy that speaks to the future state of lockout and the company’s expertise in delivering solutions today and tomorrow.

“We want you to master it—mastering whatever ‘it’ is, in terms of safety and security,” Belongea explains. “And what that means is not only are you going to have a product that is tough under fire, but we want to provide the technological and creative guidance to be able to enhance safety and to secure environments.”