LOTO — Lockout/Tagout

Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) is the most important safety procedure in industrial maintenance. Before a technician works on any equipment that has energy — electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, mechanical, or chemical — they must apply the LOTO procedure to ensure the equipment cannot be accidentally started while the person is working on it.

Rela AI digitalizes these procedures: creates, approves, executes, and audits them in a traceable and secure way.

What is it for?

Every year, workers die or are seriously injured because someone starts a piece of equipment without knowing a technician is working on it. LOTO exists specifically to prevent these accidents. It is mandatory in most industries and regulated by safety standards like OSHA 29 CFR 1910.147 (US), and equivalents in Europe and Latin America.

The Rela AI LOTO module solves the problems of paper-based LOTO:

• Paper procedures get lost, deteriorate, or become outdated without control
• There is no way to know if someone followed the correct procedure or skipped steps
• Audits require physically hunting through scattered records
• There is no traceability of who locked what and when

With digital LOTO, every execution is recorded with the executor's name, timestamps for each step, and all data available for audit in seconds.

How does it work?

LOTO procedures follow a 4-stage approval workflow before they can be executed:

1. Draft — The technician or coordinator creates the procedure with all its steps and isolation points
2. Under review — A supervisor verifies the steps are complete and isolation points are correct
3. Approved — The procedure is ready to be executed by any authorized technician
4. Rejected — Returned with comments for correction

Only approved procedures can be executed. This ensures nobody works with an incomplete or unreviewed procedure.

How to use it?

Create a LOTO procedure

1. Go to LOTO in the sidebar.
2. Click New Procedure.
3. Complete the procedure information:

Define energy isolation points

An isolation point is a physical location where energy is interrupted. For each point you must specify:

• Energy type: Electrical, Hydraulic, Pneumatic, Mechanical, Thermal, Chemical, or Gravitational
• Point description: Exact location (e.g., "Breaker QF-12 in panel MCC-3, Control Room")
• Action to take: What to do (e.g., "Turn to OFF position and place red LOTO padlock")

Define procedure steps

Steps are the sequential actions the technician follows. Example for replacing hydraulic pump HP-03:

1. Notify control room operator that work will begin on HP-03
2. Wait for confirmation that HP-03 is in manual mode
3. Shut off electric motor at panel MCC-3, breaker QF-12
4. Place red LOTO padlock on breaker QF-12 with tag showing name and date
5. Close hydraulic supply valve V-12 (90° rotation)
6. Place red LOTO padlock on valve V-12
7. Bleed residual pressure through purge valve PV-12 (wait until 0 bar)
8. Verify with pressure gauge that pressure is 0 bar
9. Verify with voltmeter that there is no voltage at motor terminals
10. Confirm all points are locked — proceed with work

Required PPE

Define what protective equipment the technician must use:

• Red LOTO padlock (quantity: 2)
• LOTO tag with executor's details (quantity: 2)
• Category 2 dielectric gloves (quantity: 1 pair)
• Safety glasses (quantity: 1)
• Calibrated voltmeter (quantity: 1)

4. Submit the procedure for review.
5. The supervisor receives a notification, reviews the procedure, and approves or rejects it with comments.

Execute an approved procedure

When a technician is about to perform the work:

1. Find the LOTO procedure for the relevant asset.
2. Click Start Execution — the system records who started it and when.
3. Complete each step in order, confirming:
   • Isolation point verified
   • Padlock placed
   • Tag placed
   • Residual energy verified as zero
4. After completing all steps, confirm the equipment is fully locked out.
5. The system changes the status to locked out and notifies the maintenance team.

After work is complete

When maintenance is finished, the unlock procedure is executed in reverse order: locks and tags are removed in the opposite order they were placed, it is verified that no one is in the hazard area, and energy is restored step by step.

Key benefits

• Standardized approved procedures — no incomplete procedures are ever used
• Complete digital record of every execution: who, when, each step
• Approval workflow that ensures supervision before execution
• Full traceability for safety audits and compliance
• Incident reporting integrated with the asset history
• LOTO compliance report with execution statistics and deviations
• Eliminates the risk of outdated paper procedures

Common use cases

Scenario 1: Bearing replacement on electric motor A technician is going to replace a bearing in motor M-05. Before touching the equipment, they open Rela AI and find the approved LOTO procedure for M-05. They see 6 steps including disconnecting the breaker at MCC-2, placing 2 padlocks (electrical and VFD), and verifying with a voltmeter. They execute each step from their phone, confirming each one. At step 5 (voltmeter verification), they take a photo of the voltmeter showing 0 V and attach it as evidence. They complete the procedure. Now they can work safely.

Scenario 2: Quarterly safety audit The safety auditor requests evidence of LOTO executions for the past 3 months. The safety coordinator opens the LOTO compliance report, selects the period, and downloads the PDF report. The report shows: 47 total executions, 45 completed (95.7%), 2 aborted with documented reasons, 0 serious incidents, average execution time 18 minutes. The audit passes.

Scenario 3: New technician unfamiliar with equipment A new technician needs to work on press P-02, a piece of equipment they have never touched. Instead of asking a colleague from memory (which may be incomplete), they find the approved LOTO procedure for P-02 in Rela AI. It has 9 detailed steps with exact locations of isolation points and required PPE. They follow the procedure step by step and work with the same safety as a 10-year veteran.