How to develop a culture of safety in your plant

Safety is often listed as the top priority of plant managers. That said, not much more gets said. How does one implement a safety culture? Attendees at the 2011 Packaging Automation Forum sponsored by Packaging World and Automation World obtained some insite into that question. Here are some of the learnings from PAF as interpreted by yours truly.

Every employee has a right to return home from work in as good of condition as he or she arrived. Roberta Nelson Shea of Safety Compliance Services LLP cited a Vanderbilt University report that claims safety as one component of sustainability. Safety is a socio-economic component that represents a part of a company's role of doing right by its employees.

Companies like Kraft Foods have developed an appropriate safety culture to see that this happens in every plant. David Herrington, Director of Safety and Environmental for the grocery and beverage units of Kraft explained that the criteria for a safety culture include involvement by all levels of the organization in the safety processes; a demonstrated senior management commitment to safety; accountability for the execution of the safety activities; employee involvement; and a positive, flexible and adaptable program.

According to Shea, safety seems difficult to achieve in today's lean environments. Compliance can be a moving target and safety competence is difficult to find. Fred Hayes, representing the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute, helped the audience to understand why, in a global economy with many national interests, simplicity seems elusive.

As programmable electronic systems (PES) are used to implement safety in increasingly complex equipment, the lack of ability for safety systems to communicate with one another was an issue identified by Bryan Griffen of Nestle. Herein lies a potential opportunity to apply PackML concepts to create an open-safety standard that will facilitate the lean integration of safety across multiple machines.

Safety will not come about merely by encouraging employees to act in safe ways, but through a suite of program elements embedded across an organization. Today we see more emphasis being placed upon ergonomics, risk assessment, engineering controls, and documentation as they relate to safety. This increasing emphasis is affecting not just the machine and equipment manufacturers, but also the people in the plants and those who procure and install new assets on the customer side.

Examples of pitfalls include the fact that machines deemed safe in one country or environment may not be so in another. CE compliant machines are not required for the US and Canadian markets and in fact, may not meet the requirements of those countries. Lock-out tag-out is not required or understood in Europe but required in the US. Arc-flash requirements are, as of yet, rather poorly understood everywhere.

For now, plant managers should insure that their safety culture includes safety processes that begin when new machines are being specified and continue on throughout a machine's lifetime. Shea recommends that purchasing specifications reference the applicable standards, that buyers be upfront about the skills of their workforce, and that the operating conditions and expectations be fully disclosed. With these items on the table, a task-based risk assessment should be completed before a machine design is approved. Get complete and full documentation that covers all of the aspects of the machine, not just the electrical systems.

Use these and other tactics to create your safety culture. What has or hasn't worked for you?

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Comments Keith, Hi! Just read your article on safety and felt the need to respond on this critically important topic to everyone in industry. Like you, I have more than 30 years experience in the chemical/electrochemical process industries. Reflecting on this experience, it is clear that management of change is a core safety practice often overlooked. The overlook many not have been intentional, but what a true change is was not understood. For example, a new operator is a change to the process. I have found that successful companies with excellent safety programs manage change very critically and carefully. Change comes from everywhere in a process, from engineering, personnel, feedstock materials, metallurgy, operating procedures, maintenance, replacement parts, and management to name a few. If management of change is recognized and supported at all levels of the organization and practiced by all-including senior management-the company's safety programs are usually very successful. The failures come mostly from companies who do not recognize change or undervalue the need to critically review any change to an operation or process. That is my 2 cents worth..... Thanks, Ev Posted by: Everette Spore on June 30, 2011 Post a comment (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.) Name: Email Address: URL: Remember personal info? Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style) Type the word 'packaging' (required):