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How I Helped a Granite Shop Get Ready for OSHA Using Claude Ai

Tuesday afternoon my phone rings. It's a customer from Vancouver, Washington.


"Mark, a friend of mine just got hammered by a surprise OSHA visit. I need to get my shop ready before they show up here."


Where to start? The problem was, like most small shops, all his safety procedures were in his head, not on paper. And OSHA cares about paper.


"Give me an hour on TeamViewer," I told him. "Let me introduce you to Claude Ai."


What I like about Claude is that it doesn't dump a giant wall of nonsense at you. You ask for a safety procedure, you get a safety procedure. Not a lecture about the history of OSHA and fifteen paragraphs of filler.


We started simple. I had him type:


"Create a document with an outline for a shop safety plan."


The look on his face when a logical outline appeared in seconds was priceless:


  1. Emergency Action Plan - Evacuation, contacts, first aid, eyewash

  2. Hazard Communication - SDS sheets, chemical labeling, storage

  3. Silica Exposure Control - Wet cutting, dust control, monitoring

  4. Respiratory Protection - Fit testing, medical evals, written program

  5. Machine Guarding - Guards in place, emergency stops functional

  6. Lockout/Tagout - Blade changes, maintenance, de-energizing procedures

  7. Forklift Safety - Training certs, daily inspections, load limits

  8. Safety Meetings - Weekly toolbox talks with documented attendance


"Are you kidding me?" he said.


We copied the outline into a markdown document and started filling in the blanks. We drilled down on Silica for a bit.


One prompt: "Create a respiratory protection program for a granite fabrication shop with wet cutting operations." Medical evaluations, fit testing, training requirements - the stuff OSHA actually asks for.


We kept rolling. Lockout/tagout procedures. Extension cord policy. Trip hazards. Flammable storage. Forklift safety plan. Each prompt built on the last.


After about 45 minutes of this, we had generated significant safety documentation. The last bit of time we spent customizing it for his shop. Adding where his eyewash stations were, his actual evacuation routes, the local emergency room address, his team members' names as safety contacts.


By the end of our hour, he had a pretty solid start on a safety manual. Not perfect, but absolutely good enough to show OSHA he took safety seriously and had systems in place.


The kicker is, his shop was already pretty safe. They were doing the right things, just hadn't documented it. That's what kills most small shops in an OSHA inspection. Not that they're unsafe, but that they can't prove they're safe.


If you're reading this thinking you should probably get your documentation together, you've got options.


OSHA has a free On-Site Consultation Program where they come to your shop, help you find hazards, and there's no citations or penalties. It's confidential.



Grab Claude Ai (or your favorite llm) and start building your own documentation. When OSHA shows up, hand them a binder instead of excuses.



Happy Fabricating,



Mark Lauzon

Sasso USA

503-333-2485



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