The Spring Manufacturers Institute (SMI) holds four 1-hour safety webinars during the summer season on important issues in spring manufacturing. The 2024 season has come to an end with topics including: machine guarding, OSHA lockout/control of hazardous energy standards, along with basic and advanced investigation.

SMI’s safety webinar series focuses on educating employees, HR managers, production leaders and owners on a variety of safety challenges they face.

All webinars are led by Dr. Laura Helmrich-Rhodes, CSP, SMI’s regulatory compliance consultant. Rhodes has worked for SMI since 2014 and has more than 35 years of experience as a safety professional. In addition to her work with SMI, she is a full-time professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in the safety sciences department.

Dr. Rhodes teaches safety communications, OSHA compliance at the undergraduate level and legal aspects of safety, human relations in safety and accident investigations techniques courses at the graduate and Ph.D. levels. She is also the owner of Safety Geeks, LLC, a safety, and HR consulting service. She maintains her OSHA Authorized Instructor rating in both general industry and construction. Her previous employment included PA/OSHA Consultation, and two global commercial insurance companies.

SMI safety webinars are free for members, but reservations are required. Nonmembers are welcome to attend at a cost of $149 per computer. All webinars are held from 1 to 2 p.m. EST.

To register for a webinar and/or information on safety audits or safety training, email SMI communications and administrative coordinator, Gaby Carrasco, at gaby@smihq.org.