LOTO for Maintenance and Cleaning: A Restart Checklist
Industry Operations Note 4 of 6: lockout, tagout, and restart
After a machine stops, power can return or stored pressure or gravity can move its parts. A coworker unaware that maintenance is underway may also restart it. Lockout/tagout (LOTO) prevents these hazards by isolating energy, applying locks and tags, and maintaining isolation until work is complete.
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. Manage the work under the same procedure from its start through lock removal and restart.
Applicable work and residual energy
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.
Pressure, heat, gravity, and rotating inertia can remain after electrical power is cut. Identify energy sources and isolation points in the equipment procedure and verify them 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.
Checks before restart
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.
Record who stopped the equipment, who is still working, and who made the final check. Use the record to verify that the procedure was followed from the start of work through lock removal and restart.