WJI May 2020 Feature Sample

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SAFETY:

The dangers were largely discernible

In 2020, the list changed

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F E AT U R E

Safety The essence of just how vital safety is has been seared into the collective industry consciousness by the coronavirus pandemic. It is the ultimate concern at this point. Yet basic plant safety cannot be overlooked. It still matters, and often the problems stem from simple human errors.

It is something that can be controlled on the plant floor. This feature looks at both, including perspective and advice from a former OSHA inspector.

History shows that most accidents trace back to human error Nexans Group Safety Manager Portia Groff, who is responsible for nearly a hundred plants in dozens of countries, has decades of experience in safety. Below, she shares her thoughts with WJI. Of note, this interview was done prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

WJI: Safety has always mattered, if for no other reason that accidents can lead to lawsuits and visits from OSHA, so why does it seem that many manufacturers have ratcheted up their programs so much in recent years?

Groff: Companies now recognize that the cost of employees being injured in the workplace goes beyond the obvious issue of not wanting employees to be hurt and in pain.

In addition to what you mentioned, even the most minor injuries will impact employee morale; productivity; quality of products and services; the reputation of a company with potential customers and/or prospective employees; the cost of recruitment, hiring and on-boarding; turnover rates; higher insurance and Workers’ Compensation premiums; and lower profit margins and profitability.

WJI: Is there one aspect that inevitably represents the largest source of accidents for manufacturers?

Groff: Handling issues are the largest cause category of incidents. Within Nexans North America, approximately 37% of all incidents are being caused by the lifting, carrying, pushing, pulling of products, materials or equipment.

This is why basic ergonomic training, including understanding the risk factors and using ergonomic assessment tools, are included in the Job Safety Analysis (JSA) train-

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Nexans Group Safety Manager Portia Groff ing that all North America Nexans employees are required to participate in. Employees at all levels of the organization are not only encouraged to submit Safe and Unsafe Acts/ Conditions (SUSA) observation forms but are also empowered to be involved in the elimination or reduction of these identified potential hazards.

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F E AT U R E

WJI: Are most accidents caused by human nature, and if so, how hard is it to change that?

Groff: The root cause of many incidents is human behaviors. After all, in our industry humans are constantly interacting with equipment and products. For the most part they are performing routine tasks on older equipment and performing frequent manual operations. Can unsafe habits be changed? Yes. As long as they are able to be replaced with specific desired safe behaviors. If desired safe behaviors have not been clearly defined for tasks that have potential hazards associated with them, operators will develop their own method (behaviors) to accomplish the goal.

Therefore, it is important to first identify what tasks have potential hazards, and then to involve employees who are exposed to the hazards (experts) to try to eliminate them.

For those hazards that can’t be eliminated, then it is critical to define and document into the procedures the desired safe behaviors to be taken to safely interact with the potential hazards.

WJI: What kind of work activity causes the most injuries?

Groff: The two types that top the list are upper extremity muscular skeletal disorders (MSD) and lower back pain (LBP). Again, during ergonomic training all employees

W A I : O P E R AT I O N A L B E S T P R A C T I C E S C O V I D - 1 9 W E B I N A R

Highlights Part 1: Comments by Dominique Perroud, SAMP WAI’s April 8th webinar— Operational Best Practices Covid-19, a panel discussion moderated by WAI President Jan Sørige—drew the Association’s largest ever audience (206). It featured panelists Dominique Perroud, SAMP general manager in China; Daniel Blais, Prysmian Group, V.P. Utilities Manufacturing; and Brian Holzaepfel, Charter Steel, operations manager. Below are edited observations from Perroud.

In China, we were affected quite early. The plant was shut down by local government decision for almost four weeks. We were able to restart only after we were able to submit all the necessary actions that we were preparing for the epidemic prevention and gather all the required material, basically masks, disinfectant, and liquid soap that the government required to show we were ready.

Now, we check every employee’s temperature twice a day. That is done by a security guard, which is actually quite common in China. We don’t meet together. Even in the plant, meetings are held by Skype. Everyone has to keep space between colleagues. That includes all areas. In the lunch canteen, it is one person per table. We keep track of all information. Visitors must provide name, identification and phone number. They too have their temperature taken. We have posted specific rules that there are to be no handshakes, no contact, with colleagues. We constantly wash all the offices and work areas.

One important issue was to be able to check where the people had been traveling. All employees submit their cell phone number, and they are checked to see where they have been in the past 15 days. If that includes an area that is defined as being potentially “at risk,” they are automatically forced to stay at home for two weeks. I had to spend a few days in February in Italy, and when I returned to China I was not allowed to go to the plant. I had to spend time in quarantine, just like everyone else.

At our plant in Changzhou, we try to limit the number of people in the workshop, which is much more difficult than controlling people in the office. We make sure we

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operate with the fewest people needed. That’s one key, but in our business, we rely on a lot on sub-suppliers to provide parts, and that has also been a challenge because they have staff that has also been affected.

Some of their employees have not been able to travel, and Dominique Perroud others cannot go back to work.

Transportation has also made it difficult for us to get some imported parts.

I believe that what we are facing now in China is at a different stage than what is being experienced in the U.S. We were very much focused on safety and then communication four or five weeks ago. Today, I think our situation has really improved, and we are starting to relax a little bit on all the measures we had to put in place. We feel as if the situation has become quite stable, but now we are at that next stage, one where we do not want to see a relapse. The danger is that if we forget all the measures and restrictions that were imposed, something could happen again. The virus could start to spread, and then we would be back to where we were almost two months ago. I hope very much that is not the case.

I would like to say that if proper measures are implemented and there is good communication, then hopefully everyone elsewhere can soon get back to a normal situation.

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