There are a number of potential equipment safety hazards at any workplace if the equipment is not maintained correctly. Vehicles, conveyors, irreg carts, etc. If we removed everything that was a potential safety hazard rather then adequately maintaining it none of us would have a job. I can't speak to the automotive side but from a PE perspective I would say a bench grinder is an necessary, not nice to have, piece of equipment.
JMHO, but it is not that hard to put processes in place to ensure that the bench grinder meets the guarding requirements that Ketter / OSHA look for. If you can't hold someone accountable for following a process as simple as a 30 second pre / post trip of the equipment what can you hold them accountable for?
Pretrip and post trip of equipment is virtually non-existent. By using this analogy you are saying that every business manager in the system has no ability to hold their people accountable for anything. The percentage of drivers that perform these activities is probably less then 10%. In most locations the forklift pretrip is constantly in violation of the pretrip requirements, eyewash stations are dirty, egress is blocked, guards are out of place, and the infamous grinder is not in compliance.
When a Keter audit is announced every contractor known to PE assembles for a 4 hour fix the guards, adjust the grinders, clean the eye wash, audit the chemical, etc party. If it weren't for this "emergency" get together, the results of the keter audit would be very ugly.
At any given time I can walk into just about any building and witness a number of DOT, OSHA, FAA and UPS policy violations carried out in plain sight.
Holding a single PE mechanic accountable to keep one access restricted grinder in compliance is a simple task. Put the grinder in the middle of a hub where its used by everyone from outside contractors to carwashers trying to fix a wooden broom handle and the task becomes nearly impossible.
It's a rare occasion when an internal audit does not identify a grinder, an eyewash, a forklift or a guard in violation.
Test your skills and ability. Next time Keter shows up in one of your buildings, ignore the notice. Don't fix anything in the 4 hour period before the audit and then let us know how the review goes.
JTHF