Safety is ALWAYS a Key Point

In Job Instruction, key points are defined as how to do the job. There are three broadly classified key points:

1. Things that make or break the job (quality)


2. Tricks or knacks that make the job easier (productivity/efficiency)


3. Things that can injure the worker. (safety)

Case in point: soldering. Many know what to do when soldering, but often don’t know how to do it safely, efficiently and correctly. Once an operator burned herself with a soldering iron. When asked how it happened, she said that she was “pushing too hard” on the soldering iron and her fingers slipped. The operator was applying pressure to the solder joint, a major step in the process, but the key point is how much pressure to apply. If trained properly, the operator would have applied the correct pressure to the solder joint and her fingers would not have slipped and been burned. Now, rather than train her properly in soldering, the managers will find a device that will shield her fingers from the solder tip. This is not corrective action, since the wrong pressure will still be applied to the solder joint, causing other problems in efficiency and quality. Safety is ALWAYS a key point and is closely tied to productivity and quality.