Lockout/Tagout Requirements (29 CFR 1910.147) for Small Employers

Short answer: if your employees clean, unjam, adjust, repair or maintain machines that could start up or release stored energy while they work, OSHA’s lockout/tagout standard, 29 CFR 1910.147, applies, whatever the size of the business. You need a written energy control program, machine-specific procedures (with one narrow exception), training with a signed certification, and an inspection of each procedure at least once a year. Checked against the current text on eCFR on October 10, 2026.

1. Why a HazCom company is writing about lockout/tagout

OSHA publishes a list of the standards it cites most often after federal inspections. On its Top 10 Most Frequently Cited Standards page (checked October 10, 2026), the preliminary list for Fiscal Year 2026 (October 1, 2025 to August 31, 2026) ranks:

1. Fall Protection, general requirements (construction), 1926.501
2. Hazard Communication, general industry, 1910.1200
3. Control of Hazardous Energy (lockout/tagout), general industry, 1910.147

The rest of that list includes respiratory protection (1910.134, sixth), powered industrial trucks (1910.178, seventh) and machine guarding (1910.212, tenth). For a general-industry shop, HazCom and lockout/tagout are the two most-cited standards on the list. If you are fixing one, it is worth checking the other. Our HazCom guides start at does HazCom apply to small businesses and the most-cited HazCom violations.

2. Scope: who and what 1910.147 covers

The standard covers “the servicing and maintenance of machines and equipment in which the unexpected energization or start up of the machines or equipment, or release of stored energy could cause injury to employees” (1910.147(a)(1)(i)). Energy means electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, chemical, thermal or any other source (“energy source”, 1910.147(b)). Servicing and maintenance include setting up, adjusting, inspecting, lubricating, cleaning, unjamming and tool changes.

Not covered at all (1910.147(a)(1)(ii)):

• construction and agriculture employment;
• employment covered by parts 1915, 1917 and 1918 (shipyards, marine terminals, longshoring);
• installations under the exclusive control of electric utilities for power generation, transmission and distribution;
• exposure to electrical hazards from work on, near or with conductors or equipment in electric-utilization installations, which is covered by Subpart S (the electrical standards); and
• oil and gas well drilling and servicing.

Normal production work is generally covered by machine guarding (Subpart O), not 1910.147. Servicing during production is covered if an employee removes or bypasses a guard, or puts any part of the body into the point of operation or an associated danger zone (1910.147(a)(2)(ii)). A note to that paragraph excludes minor tool changes and adjustments that are “routine, repetitive, and integral to the use of the equipment for production”, but only where alternative measures give effective protection.

Two specific exceptions (1910.147(a)(2)(iii)):

• Cord-and-plug equipment, where unplugging controls the hazard and “the plug being under the exclusive control of the employee performing the servicing or maintenance” ((a)(2)(iii)(A)). A bench grinder or a floor scrubber unplugged and with the plug in the technician’s hand or in sight fits; one plugged in behind a wall where a co-worker could reconnect it does not.
• Hot tap operations on pressurized pipelines, under three conditions the employer must demonstrate ((a)(2)(iii)(B)).

3. The written energy control program ((c)(1))

“The employer shall establish a program consisting of energy control procedures, employee training and periodic inspections” so that, before servicing, the machine “shall be isolated from the energy source, and rendered inoperative” (1910.147(c)(1)). The program is those three parts together: procedures, training, inspections. The employer also supplies the locks, tags and other hardware ((c)(5)(i)); devices must be durable, standardized by color, shape or size, substantial, and identify the employee who applied them ((c)(5)(ii)).

4. Lockout or tagout? ((c)(2)–(3))

• If an energy isolating device cannot be locked out, the program uses tagout ((c)(2)(i)).
• If it can be locked out, the program uses lockout, “unless the employer can demonstrate that the utilization of a tagout system will provide full employee protection” ((c)(2)(ii)).
• Full employee protection means the tag goes where the lock would have gone, and the employer shows a level of safety equivalent to lockout, for example by removing an isolating circuit element, blocking a controlling switch, opening an extra disconnect or removing a valve handle ((c)(3)).
• Since January 2, 1990, new equipment, and equipment that gets a replacement or major repair, renovation or modification, must have isolating devices designed to accept a lock ((c)(2)(iii)).

Push buttons, selector switches and other control-circuit devices are not energy isolating devices (1910.147(b)). Hitting the stop button is a shutdown, not a lockout.

5. Machine-specific procedures, and the documentation exception ((c)(4))

“Procedures shall be developed, documented and utilized for the control of potentially hazardous energy” (1910.147(c)(4)(i)). Each procedure must clearly set out its scope, purpose, authorization, rules and techniques, and at least ((c)(4)(ii)):

• (A) a specific statement of the intended use of the procedure;
• (B) specific steps for shutting down, isolating, blocking and securing the machine;
• (C) specific steps for placing, removing and transferring lockout or tagout devices, and who is responsible for them; and
• (D) specific requirements for testing the machine to verify that the lockout and other energy control measures work.

The documentation exception. The note to (c)(4)(i) says you need not document the procedure for a particular machine when all eight of these are true:

1. no potential for stored or residual energy, or reaccumulation of it, after shutdown that could endanger employees;
2. a single energy source that can be readily identified and isolated;
3. isolating and locking out that source completely de-energizes and deactivates the machine;
4. the machine is isolated and locked out during servicing or maintenance;
5. a single lockout device achieves a locked-out condition;
6. the lockout device is under the exclusive control of the authorized employee doing the work;
7. the work does not create hazards for other employees; and
8. the employer has had no accidents involving unexpected activation or re-energization of that machine during servicing or maintenance.

The exception removes the paperwork for that machine, not the lockout itself, the training or the annual inspection. Most production machines in a machine shop, with air, hydraulics, spring-loaded or gravity-loaded parts, fail at least one of the eight.

6. The six steps of applying energy control ((d))

Paragraph (d) requires the procedure to cover these elements “in the following sequence”:

1. Preparation for shutdown ((d)(1)): the authorized employee knows the type and magnitude of the energy, its hazards and how to control it.
2. Machine or equipment shutdown ((d)(2)): an orderly shutdown using the established procedure.
3. Isolation ((d)(3)): every energy isolating device needed is located and operated to isolate the machine.
4. Lockout or tagout device application ((d)(4)): authorized employees affix devices to each isolating device, locks holding it in the “safe” or “off” position.
5. Stored energy ((d)(5)): stored or residual energy is relieved, disconnected, restrained or otherwise rendered safe, and verification continues if it could reaccumulate.
6. Verification of isolation ((d)(6)): before starting work, the authorized employee verifies that isolation and de-energization have been accomplished.

Affected employees must be notified before the controls are applied and after they are removed (1910.147(c)(9)), and only the authorized employees doing the servicing may apply them ((c)(8)).

7. Release from lockout or tagout ((e))

• The machine ((e)(1)): inspect the work area so nonessential items are removed and components are operationally intact.
• Employees ((e)(2)): check that all employees are safely positioned or removed, and after devices come off but before start-up, notify affected employees.
• Device removal ((e)(3)): each device is removed by the employee who applied it. If that person is not available, the employer may remove it only under a specific documented procedure and training that verifies the employee is not at the facility, makes all reasonable efforts to contact them, and ensures they know before resuming work.

Paragraph (f) adds rules for temporary removal to test or position a machine, outside contractors, group lockout and shift changes.

8. Periodic inspection, at least annually ((c)(6))

“The employer shall conduct a periodic inspection of the energy control procedure at least annually” (1910.147(c)(6)(i)). The inspector is an authorized employee other than the ones using the procedure being inspected. Where lockout is used, the inspection includes a review with each authorized employee of their responsibilities; where tagout is used, the review covers each authorized and affected employee and the limitations of tags in (c)(7)(ii). The employer certifies each inspection, identifying the machine, the date, the employees included and the person who inspected ((c)(6)(ii)). The checklist in section 11 is built around those elements.

9. Training for authorized, affected and other employees ((c)(7))

Retraining is required for authorized and affected employees after a change in job assignment, a change in machines, equipment or processes that presents a new hazard, or a change in the procedures, and whenever an inspection or other information shows deviations or gaps ((c)(7)(iii)). Certification: “The employer shall certify that employee training has been accomplished and is being kept up to date. The certification shall contain each employee’s name and dates of training” ((c)(7)(iv)).

This is the same pattern as HazCom training: the record of who was trained, on what, and when is what an inspector asks for. See HazCom training requirements for the chemical side.

10. Printable outline: machine-specific lockout procedure

A fill-in outline that follows the elements of (c)(4)(ii) and the sequence in (d) and (e). OSHA’s own non-mandatory Appendix A to 1910.147 is a longer “typical minimal lockout procedure” you can adapt. This is an outline, not legal advice; check it against the machine and its manufacturer’s instructions. Print this page

11. Printable checklist: annual periodic inspection (c)(6)

One sheet per energy control procedure, at least once a year. Not legal advice.

Sources (checked October 10, 2026)

• eCFR, 29 CFR 1910.147 — The control of hazardous energy (lockout/tagout): scope (a)(1)–(2), program (c)(1), lockout vs tagout (c)(2)–(3), procedures and the documentation exception (c)(4), inspection (c)(6), training and certification (c)(7), application (d), release (e). eCFR Title 29 up to date as of October 7, 2026; section last amended 2011.
• OSHA, Appendix A to 1910.147 — Typical minimal lockout procedure (non-mandatory).
• OSHA, Top 10 Most Frequently Cited Standards — preliminary list for Fiscal Year 2026 (October 1, 2025 to August 31, 2026): Hazard Communication second, lockout/tagout third.
• OSHA, Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout) — OSHA’s topic page and resources.

Educational information, not legal advice. Quotations and citations are from the current text of 29 CFR 1910.147 on eCFR and from osha.gov, both checked October 10, 2026. State Plan states can have their own lockout/tagout rules; check your state’s program, and confirm anything that matters for your business against the regulation itself.