OSHA Inspection: BRIESS INDUSTRIES, INC.

Issued

2023-01-04 00:00:00

Abate by

2024-01-31 00:00:00

Penalty

Initial $8204.00 · Current $15625.00

General-duty citation text

29 CFR  1910.22(a)(3): Walking-working surfaces are maintained free of hazards such as sharp or protruding objects, loose boards, corrosion, leaks, spills, snow, and ice.   On or about August 24, 2022, at an establishment located at 605 Washington Street, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, in Malt House 6 Kiln Floor; employees were exposed to fall hazards in the event the kiln tray they were standing on rotated while performing cleaning activities.

Issued

2023-01-04 00:00:00

Abate by

2024-01-31 00:00:00

Penalty

Initial $6153.00 · Current $0.00 Reduced

General-duty citation text

29 CFR  1910.22(c):  Access and egress.  The employer must provide, and ensure each employee uses, a safe means of access and egress to and from walking-working surfaces.  On or about August 24, 2022, at an establishment located at 605 Washington Street, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, in Malt House 6; a safe means of access and egress was not provided at personnel points of access when climbing up and over the concrete wall to get in and out of the kiln loading deck, exposing employees to fall hazards between 40 and 55 inches.

Issued

2023-01-04 00:00:00

Abate by

2024-01-31 00:00:00

Penalty

Initial $10256.00 · Current $0.00 Reduced

General-duty citation text

29 CFR  1910.28(b)(1)(i):  Unprotected sides and edges.  (i) Except as provided elsewhere in this section, the employer must ensure that each employee on a walking-working surface with an unprotected side or edge that is 4 feet (1.2 m) or more above a lower level is protected from falling by one or more of the following:    (a)  On or about August 24, 2022, at an establishment located at 605 Washington Street, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin; in Malt House 6 at the Germ Bed compartment 2, employees were exposed to fall hazards while walking on the scalloped wall to perform cleaning activities exposing employees to 57-inch fall hazards.  (b)  On or about July 6, 2022, at an establishment located at 605 Washington Street, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin; on the roof level the exhaust damper for the kiln was open at the top exposing employees to fall hazards of 130 inches when climbing the fixed ladder to access the heat exchangers.

Issued

2023-01-04 00:00:00

Abate by

2023-02-02 00:00:00

Penalty

Initial $10256.00 · Current $15625.00

General-duty citation text

29 CFR 1910.28(b)(3)(iv):  Each employee is protected from falling into a ladderway floor hole or ladderway platform hole by a guardrail system and toe boards erected on all exposed sides, except at the entrance to the hole, where a self-closing gate or an offset must be used.  (a)  On or about August 12, 2022, at an establishment located at 605 Washington Street, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin; Malt House 6 North Germ Stack; the fixed ladder used to get to the top of the germ stack for cleaning and sanitation activities did not have a self-closing gate exposing employees to fall hazards.  (b)  On or about July 6, 2022, at an establishment located at 605 Washington Street, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin; Malt House 6 South Germ Stack; the fixed ladder used to get to the top of the germ stack for cleaning and sanitation activities did not have a self-closing gate exposing employees to fall hazards.  (c)  On or about July 5, 2022, at an establishment located at 605 Washington Street, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin; the fixed ladder used to access the heat exchanger for cleaning did not have an offset or swing gate exposing employees to fall hazards.  (d)  On or about July 5, 2022, at an establishment located at 605 Washington Street, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin; the fixed ladder used to access the stainless-steel slots for cleaning did not have an offset or swing gate exposing employees to fall hazards.

Issued

2023-01-04 00:00:00

Abate by

2024-07-31 00:00:00

Penalty

Initial $10256.00 · Current $15625.00

General-duty citation text

29 CFR 1910.147(f)(1): Testing or positioning of machines, equipment or components thereof. In situations in which lockout or tagout devices must be temporarily removed from the energy isolating device and the machine or equipment energized to test or position the machine, equipment or component thereof, the following sequence of actions shall be followed as outlined in 29 CFR 1910.147(f)(1)(i) through (v):  On or about October 18, 2022, at an establishment located at 605 Washington Street, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, in Malt House 6 in Germ Bed Compartment 3; during the clearing of a jam and making adjustments, the authorized employee was not provided alternative protective measures during the testing and repositioning when another employee was activating the controls outside the germ bed compartment exposing the authorized employee to entanglement hazards.

Issued

2023-01-04 00:00:00

Abate by

2024-07-31 00:00:00

Penalty

Initial $10256.00 · Current $0.00 Reduced

General-duty citation text

29 CFR  1910.147(f)(3)(ii)(D):  Each authorized employee shall affix a personal lockout or tagout device to the group lockout device, group lockbox, or comparable mechanism when he or she begins work, and shall remove those devices when he or she stops working on the machine or equipment being serviced or maintained.  On or about August 24, 2022, at an establishment located at 605 Washington Street, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, in Malt House 6; each employee performing cleaning/shoveling activities in the kiln by the leveler did not apply a personal lockout device prior to entering the area to clean the leveler which had been buried with product exposing employees to struck by hazards.

Issued

2023-01-04 00:00:00

Abate by

2024-07-31 00:00:00

Penalty

Initial $10256.00 · Current $15625.00

General-duty citation text

29 CFR  1910.212(a)(1):  Types of guarding. One or more methods of machine guarding shall be provided to protect the operator and other employees in the machine area from hazards such as those created by point of operation, ingoing nip points, rotating parts, flying chips and sparks. Examples of guarding methods are-barrier guards, two-hand tripping devices, electronic safety devices, etc.  (a)  On or about October 18, 2022, at an establishment located at 605 Washington Street, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, in Malt House 6 Upper Deck Kiln; the horizontal screw auger was not guarded exposing employees to entanglement hazards when stepping on the cylinder, located on the side wall, to monitor the upper loading deck of the kiln being loaded.  (b)  On or about August 24, 2022, at an establishment located at 605 Washington Street, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, in Malt House 6 on the Germ Bed Compartment 2; the in-floor auger had inadequate guards at the front of the germ bed compartment exposing employees to entanglement hazards.

Issued

2023-01-04 00:00:00

Abate by

2024-07-31 00:00:00

Penalty

Initial $10256.00 · Current $0.00 Reduced

General-duty citation text

29 CFR  1910.212(a)(2):  General requirements for machine guards. Guards shall be affixed to the machine where possible and secured elsewhere if for any reason attachment to the machine is not possible. The guard shall be such that it does not offer an accident hazard in itself.  On or about August 24, 2022, at an establishment located at 605 Washington Street, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, in Malt House 6 on the Germ Bed Compartment 2; at the front of the germ bed, the horizontal auger which fed into the in-floor auger had a hinged guard which was not securely attached allowing access to the rotating auger, exposing employees to entanglement hazards.

Issued

2023-01-04 00:00:00

Penalty

Initial $20513.00 · Current $25496.00

General-duty citation text

29 CFR  1910.147(c)(4)(i):   Procedures shall be developed, documented and utilized for the control of potentially hazardous energy when employees are engaged in the activities covered by this section.   Note: Exception: The employer need not document the required procedure for a particular machine or equipment, when all of the following elements exist: (1) The machine or equipment has no potential for stored or residual energy or reaccumulation of stored energy after shut down which could endanger employees; (2) the machine or equipment has a single energy source which can be readily identified and isolated; (3) the isolation and locking out of that energy source will completely deenergize and deactivate the machine or equipment; (4) the machine or equipment is isolated from that energy source and locked out during servicing or maintenance; (5) a single lockout device will achieve a locker-out condition; (6) the lockout device is under the exclusive control of the authorized employee performing the servicing or maintenance; (7) the servicing or maintenance does not create hazards for other employees; and (8) the employer, in utilizing this exception, has had no accidents involving the unexpected activation or reenergization of the machine or equipment during servicing or maintenance.  On or about August 24, 2022, at an establishment located at 605 Washington Street, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin; Malt House 6, the employer did not develop, document, and utilize energy control procedures for the Germ Bed Compartments when performing the cleaning, sanitation, and washing activities inside each of the germ bed compartments exposing employees to accidental/inadvertent restart of the equipment.   The Briess Industries, Inc. was previously cited for a violation of this occupational safety and health standard which was contained in OSHA inspection number 1282326, citation number 1, item number 3 and was affirmed as a final order on March 21, 2019, with respect to a workplace located at 625 South Irish Road in Chilton, Wisconsin.

Issued

2023-01-04 00:00:00

Penalty

Initial $0.00 · Current $0.00

General-duty citation text

29 CFR  1910.147(d): The established procedure for the application of energy control (the lockout or tagout procedures) did not cover the actions listed in and was not done in sequence as required by 29 CFR 1910.147(d)(1)-(6):  On or about August 24, 2022, at an establishment located at 605 Washington Street, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin; Malt House 6, employees were exposed to machine hazards associated with moving parts when they engaged in cleaning activities on the Germ Bed Compartment #2.  The employer did not ensure that employees implemented energy control application steps or equivalent protective measures prior to allowing them to perform cleaning activities around the vertical helix augers and energized in-floor auger.  The machine was not deenergized prior to the employee engaging in the servicing / maintenance activity.   As a result, the remaining applicable energy control elements, involving machine isolation [1910.147(d)(3)], lockout/tagout device application [1910.147(d)(4)], dissipation of residual energy [1910(d)(5)(i)], and verification of isolation [1910.147(d)(6)] were not implemented to protect employees from machine hazards.  The Briess Industries, Inc. was previously cited for a violation of this occupational safety and health standard, which was contained in OSHA inspection number 1388093, citation number 1 item number 1 and was affirmed as a final order on June 25, 2019, with respect to a workplace located at 625 South Irish Road in Chilton, Wisconsin.

Issued

2023-01-04 00:00:00

Penalty

Initial $20513.00 · Current $0.00 Reduced

General-duty citation text

29 CFR 1910.147(c)(6)(i):  The employer shall conduct a periodic inspection of the energy control procedure at least annually to ensure that the procedure and the requirements of this standard are being followed.  Periodic inspections of the energy control procedures were not conducted at least annually to ensure continuity of procedures and proper application as well as assure employees are familiar with their responsibilities.  The Briess Industries, Inc. was previously cited for a violation of this occupational safety and health standard, which was contained in OSHA inspection number 1282326, citation number 1, item number 1 and was affirmed as a final order on March 21, 2019, with respect to a workplace located at 625 South Irish Road in Chilton, Wisconsin.