July 2025

August2024

Inside the July Issue

 

 

Conveyor Safety and the
Return on Prevention
BY JERAD HEITZLER

Protecting workers should be the top priority for any employer, especially those on the front line of materials processing. Beyond the substantial financial consequences of a workplace injury or fatality, the impacts are felt profoundly by an employee’s family, their coworkers, and the wider community.

Thus, investing in safe, well-engineered equipment and prevention-focused training that helps protect workers from injury or illness is essentially investing in people, company culture, and the community. And Martin’s technicians are increasingly applying their expertise to help operators control maintenance risks by sharing their knowledge and installing equipment that improves safety.

Although return on investment (ROI) is a common calculation when installing new conveyor accessories, some safety experts emphasize the return on prevention (ROP). This long-term strategy prioritizes equipment with safety engineered into the design, allowing for more ergonomic servicing, faster and easier access, and other improvements that make maintenance less dangerous and more desirable to do. Although safer equipment is typically a larger initial capital investment, the whole life return is in faster maintenance with less downtime, longer equipment life, and, importantly, a considerably lower chance of an incident, reducing the overall cost of operation.

The Real Costs of ROI Calculating return on investment (ROI) on conveyor safety is specific to each operation, but in general, they can be broken down into “direct costs” and “indirect costs”:
• Direct costs are explicitly associated with an accident or illness. In general, these include fines, medical bills, insurance premiums, indemnity payments and temporary disability payments.
• Indirect costs include a variety of other expenses resulting from the incident. They include:
- Cleanup time and product loss - Equipment repair / replacement
- Purchase / installation of safety components
- Overtime to fill in for the missing worker
- Cost of hiring, training and equipping new employees
- Legal fees and litigation costs
- Increased insurance premiums
- Production delays and missed shipment targets
- Reduced employee morale, greater absenteeism
- Negative publicity - Increased scrutiny by regulators.

The Price of Recovering From An Accident
To demonstrate the benefits of safety to a company’s bottom line, OSHA created the online tool, ‘$afety Pays’, which uses company-specific economic information to assess the potential economic impact of occupational injuries on that firm’s profitability. Full story »

 

 

today's News

OSHA Proposes Significant Deregulation, Altering Safety Standards

FSM Staff | 07.11.25

WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer announced an initiative July 1, 2025, that proposes eliminating or revising numerous regulations deemed outdated, duplicative, or unnecessarily inflexible. Changes proposed as part of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) deregulation efforts can affect various safety rules.

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NSC Honors 50 Organizations with 2025 Industry Leader Awards

FSM Staff | 07.11.25

WASHINGTON, DC -- The National Safety Council awarded 50 organizations with the 2025 Industry Leader Awards for outstanding safety performance within their industries, up from 35 organizations in 2024. 

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ISEA Members Testify at OSHA Heat Hearing

FSM Staff | 07.10.25

ARLINGTON, VA -- As record-breaking heat waves sweep the country, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is moving forward on its proposed Heat Injury & Illness Prevention Rule—a long-awaited federal standard aimed at protecting workers from the growing risks of occupational heat stress.

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SFPE Announces Seven Members Elevated to Highest Fellow Status

FSM Staff | 07.10.25

GAITHERSBURG, MD -- The Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE), the world’s leading professional society for fire protection and fire safety engineering, announces its 2025 class of Fellows and award recipients. 

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Toyota Provides $600K for Texas Flood Relief

FSM Staff | 07.09.25

PLANO, TX -- Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) is partnering with Toyota Financial Services (TFS), Gulf States Toyota (GST), Southeast Toyota (SET), Vic Vaughan Toyota of Boerne and Toyota and Lexus dealers nationwide, to provide a combined donation of more than $600,000 to support those impacted by the devastating flash floods in Kerr County and the Texas Hill Country over the July 4th weekend.

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