Another issue concerning multiple employee lock/tagout is the situation where a piece of equipment has many isolating devices that must be locked/tagged before maintenance can be performed.

An example of this would be a large boiler with a total of ten valves and disconnects that must be isolated before servicing. In this case the maintenance employees have two options:

1) they could each place a lock on each of the ten lockout/tagout locations. This option may be difficult, because each mechanic would have to posses ten locks and tags and the process of locking/tagging all isolating devices may be cumbersome.

2) One supervisory employee could lockout/tagout the entire boiler. This supervisor would then place all keys to his locks inside a metal "lockout box". All other mechanic working on the boiler would then place a single lock and tag on the metal lockout box that holds the supervisors keys.

In order to further illustrate this example let's look at the steps that you would take when multiple employees are conducting lockout/tagout on the same piece of equipment using a lockout box. Procedure:

STEP #1: One (1) Authorized Employee will place all the required locks/tags on the equipment/machinery being repaired or serviced. Locks and tags will be placed on the equipment by following a written procedure developed for the particular piece of equipment.

STEP #2: All keys are then placed into a lock box by the one (1) authorized employee.

STEP #3: A multi-lock hasp is then placed on the lock box and all other employees performing maintenance/service on the piece of equipment lockout/tagout the box of keys.

STEP #4: If maintenance/service of the equipment will occur on different shift and with different mechanics, the mechanics on the leaving shift will meet with the mechanics on the incoming shift to change out locks. A new Authorized Employee will be designated for the new shift and will be responsible for the locks, tags and keys that are directly on the equipment.

STEP #5: Once a mechanic has completed their work on the locked out piece of equipment, they will remove their lock and tag form the group lockout box.

STEP #6: Once all mechanics have removed their locks and tags from the group lockout box, the authorized employee that placed the locks on the piece of equipment will be able to access his/her key and can proceed to unlock the entire piece of equipment.