The CMSE Perspective Part 2: Designing for the Technician, Safety As a Sign of Respect

In Part 1, we covered why safety has to be intentional from day one. Now let’s talk about the people who live with those design decisions every day,.

If you’ve ever been on the floor during a startup, you know who really keeps things safe: the maintenance techs. They’re the ones out there in the heat, with a multimeter in one hand and a service call in the other.

They don’t need lectures about safety, they need designs that respect their reality. That means:

• Clear labeling and organized wire routing
• Logical layouts where safety devices aren’t afterthoughts
• Built-in compliance with NFPA 70E (worker protection) and NFPA 79 (machine standards)

When both standards are applied together, you get systems that are safer to operate and maintain. A good panel should “explain itself.” When a tech opens the door, they should instantly know what’s energized, what’s isolated, and where it’s safe to work.

Safety by Collaboration

Some of our best safety improvements have come from the shop floor, not the textbook.

When a tech says, “It’d be nice if I could test this circuit without locking out the whole system,” that’s feedback worth gold. When an operator says, “The E-stop kills power too aggressively, it’s hurting uptime,” that’s not complaining; it’s collaboration.

That’s how functional safety works best, through conversation, not isolation. At Actemium Avanceon, we pair frameworks like ISO 13849, IEC 62061, and NFPA 79 with human communication, the kind that happens over coffee at 2 a.m. on the commissioning floor.

The Cost of Checkbox Safety

We’ve all seen it. The project’s 95% done, everyone’s tired, and someone realizes the safety logic isn’t written yet.  Now you’re shoving relays into a full panel, rewriting code under pressure, and explaining why go-live just slipped.

Designing with safety from the start isn’t just better for people, it’s better for the bottom line. You spend less time reworking, debugging, and firefighting. It’s like seatbelts, you don’t install them after you hit the road.

Continuous Improvement (Because Safety Doesn’t Retire)

Safety systems age, sensors drift, bypasses happen, that’s why real safety is alive, it evolves.

Both NFPA 79 and 70E require ongoing verification and maintenance. We design systems that make that easy, with diagnostic feedback, event logging, and clear HMI messaging that helps techs see what triggered a stop.

Good design makes safe behavior easy and unsafe behavior inconvenient.

Work Hard, Play Hard, Go Home Safe

We love solving tough problems and building smart systems, but we also take it personally when someone gets hurt because of poor design. Behind every circuit is a person, a teammate, a customer, a friend. That’s why safety isn’t a sales pitch or a checkbox, it’s a promise.

Safety isn’t a department or a line item either. It’s a design value that shows respect for everyone who interacts with our systems. The same care we put into PLC logic or PowerFlex integration is the care we put into protecting the people who have to live with those decisions long after commissioning is over.

At Actemium Avanceon, we don’t check the box at the end of the job. We build safety into every conversation, every drawing, and every decision. The best machines don’t just perform well, they earn trust, and that’s something worth designing for.

Written by: Greg Derubis