Professional Analysis of Occupational Safety Management for Automated Production Lines in the Textile Industry in Kano State

The textile manufacturing industry in Kano State, North West Nigeria, employs automated spinning, weaving, and finishing machinery, yet documented occupational safety incidents related to machine guarding failures, entanglement, and electrical hazards continue to occur at unacceptably high rates. This study conducts a professional analysis of occupational health and safety management for automated production lines at five textile factories in the Challawa and Sharada Industrial Estates of Kano. A mixed-methods approach involving facility safety audits using a structured checklist derived from ISO 45001 and the Nigerian Factories Act, interviews with 37 production workers and 12 safety officers, and review of three years of accident and near-miss records was applied. The audit identified deficiencies in machine guarding compliance at 68 percent of assessed production line zones, with 41 percent of guarding deficiencies classified as high risk. Lockout-tagout procedures for energy isolation during maintenance were absent or incompletely implemented in four of the five facilities. Personal protective equipment availability was adequate but compliance monitoring was weak. The study recommends implementation of machine safety risk assessments using the ISO 13849 safety integrity methodology, mandatory lockout-tagout programme formalization, and integration of safety performance indicators into production line management KPIs. A safety management improvement roadmap prioritized by risk level and estimated implementation cost is provided for industry adoption. Keywords: occupational safety, automated production, textile industry, machine guarding, Kano State