LOTO for Maintenance and Cleaning: A Restart Checklist
Industry Operations Note 4 of 6: lockout, tagout, and restart
A stopped machine is not yet a safe machine. Power can come back, stored pressure or gravity can move parts, and a coworker who does not know the job is underway can restart the equipment. Lockout/tagout (LOTO) closes those paths: isolate the energy, apply locks and tags, and hold that state until the work is done.
Korean occupational safety rules require stopping machinery and cutting power for work such as maintenance, cleaning, and repair where unexpected operation is a hazard, with a lock or warning sign applied. The unit of control is the procedure, not the padlock. It has to run from the start of work through removal and restart.
More work qualifies than a full teardown
A LOTO review is not reserved for a maintenance crew entering a large machine. Inspection, cleaning, and adjustment belong on the list whenever unexpected startup or an energy release could injure someone.
Cutting electrical power is one step, not the whole job. Pressure, heat, gravity, and rotating inertia can all remain after a stop. Keep energy sources and isolation points in the equipment procedure and verify them again at the machine before work begins.
Eight steps from notification to restart
Figure 1. A field sequence adapted from Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency guidance.
- Notify everyone affected by the planned stop.
- Stop the machine through the defined procedure.
- Isolate energy and verify that residual energy is controlled.
- Apply personal locks and tags and retain control of the keys.
- Perform the planned maintenance, cleaning, or repair.
- Check people, tools, guards, and equipment condition after the work.
- The worker who applied each lock and tag removes it.
- Notify affected people and restart through the defined procedure.
When sites compress this sequence, the steps that disappear first are the verification after isolation and the final equipment check. Both stay visible as separate steps.
One lock per exposed worker
A single shared lock protects nobody once its owner decides the job is finished. Each exposed worker applies a personal lock and keeps the key, which shows who is still protected and blocks restart until every lock is accounted for.
Removal belongs to the person who applied the lock. Shift handovers follow the site procedure so isolation never lapses while responsibility changes hands.
Restart on verification, not on a message
A completion message is not a reason to restore power. Confirm nobody remains in the hazardous area, tools and temporary supports are out, and guards are back in place. Notify affected workers and check that they are clear before the machine returns to service.
With contractors on the job, align lock methods and name the responsible people up front: who coordinates the overall isolation, and who confirms completion for each crew. Left undefined, the removal step is where confusion lands.
LOTO is a record as much as a padlock. It shows who stopped the equipment, who is still working, and who made the final check, and it works only when restart belongs to the same procedure.