LOTO exists to stop the single most preventable category of serious maintenance injury: equipment being re-energised while someone is still working on it. A technician isolates the energy source (electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic), applies a lock only they can remove, and tags it — so nobody else, even by accident, can restore power mid-repair.
On automated lines with multiple energy sources feeding one piece of equipment — mains power, a battery pack, stored hydraulic pressure in a lift mechanism — a proper isolation procedure has to account for every source, not just the obvious one, which is where isolation audits earn their place as a recurring, auditable work order rather than a one-off checklist.