Polymers & Composites Company, Meggitt
(approximately 600 staff) Loughborough, UK.
“In terms of the implementation, we identified a need for a change in the safety culture and operator awareness of hazards, to start to change attitudes and encourage people to report near misses and hazards. We felt the Deal With It® interactive workshops delivered the message, raising people’s awareness, a serious message within an engaging workshop. We decided it was important this was rolled out across the site from senior managers to operators on the shop floor.
I felt the quality of the training was exceptional; especially the delivery from the DWI trainers, having a consistent approach really helped.
The phrase Deal With It® has become a bit of a buzz term! We received a lot of good feedback from people attending the course, some saying it was the best safety course they have been on. We still have a few non- believers and people stuck in their ways, but given time and other people’s behaviour around them changing, I’m sure they will get on board.
The biggest benefit for me has been the introduction of DWI Safety Champions in each of the modules and the support from operations to allow the 1st Thursday of every month as DWI/5S day. Managers fully support the day and after a few teething problems, releasing the team from their day job, it has now become the norm. We are using the Safety Champions to gather information and take part in improvement projects.
The important thing is to provide feedback to those completing DWI cards and raising actions from safe visits. We modified the Module Managers EHS targets to include % completion of actions from DWI, incidents and EHS inspections. We had a few issues particularly with maintenance completing actions in a timely manner, we therefore set up a weekly review with the Operations Manager and Maintenance Manager to progress completion. We have seen big improvements and ownership being taken by the modules rather than always coming back to EHS Department.”
Benefits to date:
• Achievement of group targets in reducing lost time cases and severity rates.
• Reduction in days lost to accidents: 118 days in Year 1 to 25 days in Year 2 (78% reduction – impact on cost and productivity).
• Increased ownership and completion of EHS actions.
• Managers leading safety improvements in their areas and supporting champions.
• Improved compliance with monthly EHS audits, inspections, risk assessment program.
• Safety improvements and ideas being generated by operators.