We import machinery and our supplier is proposing changing the LOTO from a physical one to a password. Does anyone have any similar experience of this and can offer advice

Using passwords with lock out tag out seems tantamount to giving everyone the keys to the locks and that would not be a good idea. Imagine someone locking off the process with a password and while they are still on the job someone else comes along with the same password and restarts the process. Unless I have missed somethign that does not sound right to me.

You did not mention where the machinery is being imported from or what you do with it after importation (use or distribute) - either way I would suggest that equipment using a password held in a processor unit would fail the essential safety requirements necessary for the equipment to carry a CE mark. Passwords (like keys for Fork Lift Trucks etc.) end up being shared and defeat the designers intended purpose - unfortunately consideration of the "human" element is often over looked. The other consideration is if the equipment can be powered / operated whilst by-passing the control unit? From personal experience designing handling systems around the time CE marking came in individual components could be operated without the controller (even with a PILZ safety relay) as part of a maintenance diagnostics system.

Thanks Lawlee What’s to stop people making copies of physical keys?

Even worse than copying keys at the local shoe repairer - I once worked for an employer where a supervisor had the stores man order him a set of duplicate Castel Lock (other providers available) keys! LOTO is not only about the equipment but the trained managed practices and documented procedures

Speaking as an insurance surveyor, I would not be happy with a password controlled LOTO system. The only way it could possibly work would be if all staff held their own password and only that password could be used to release the Lock Out. What would you do if you had multiple maintenance staff working on the machine? Multiple passwords? I suspect not. Finally, the big red safety hasp with multiple padlocks dangling from it is a good, clear indication (the tag out) that the machine is out of service.

Ah but Kate… I don’t work in manufacturing and I have not heard of the term LOTO( which according to another thread is an Americanism anyway) but we do use equipment with keys on it ( autoclaves for example) so this is an topic that might interest me. I always thought that this is the point of the forum so that H&S professionals from different backgrounds can share( steal) ideas with each other.

Abbreviations are a good way of excluding those who don't know but want to offer advice anyway. For those with an interest it is often quite easy to pick up the meaning by reading through the thread or using an internet search and then using a little brainpower.

LOTO is often applied to machine isolators. There is no device known that will achieve isolation by using a password. However a password is quite often used to identify an authorised person and allow them to make a brief intervention at a machine, e.g. for setting or adjustment purposes. It needs careful management, but so does the use of keys.