Earlier this month I led a course on engineering risk management for a group of engineers and managers at a manufacturing firm that does sheet metal work and makes a variety of air distribution systems and components. They have numerous machines that use multiple sources of power, which makes equipment maintenance more challenging. They use lockout and tagout (LOTO) procedures (https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/controlhazardousenergy/index.html) but were interested in a systematic procedure for managing the risk associated with equipment maintenance. While covering the process of risk management, the associated activities, and the fundamentals of decision making, we discussed how they could apply these steps to make their equipment maintenance operations safer. The discussion included the potential problems of their current lockout procedures.
The bottom line: establishing and documenting lockout and tagout (LOTO) procedures are useful steps, but they don't replace a systematic risk management process that assesses, analyzes, evaluates, mitigates, and monitors the risks of equipment maintenance. Look for the potential problems, identify the root causes, put in place safeguards that prevent them, and have contingency plans that can react promptly to keep a problem from getting worse.
P.S. I would like to thank the IIE Training Center (http://www.iienet2.org/IIETrainingCenter/Default.aspx) for the opportunity to lead this course. Please contact them if you're interested in a short course on engineering decision making and risk management.
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