Today we introduce you to a couple of your colleagues who have successfully juiced up their company’s compliance and protection programs through intensive employee involvement. Feel free to emulate their accomplishments.
World-class safety performance is a point of pride at Tropicana’s City of Industry plant in California, where workers squeeze out 41 million gallons of juice each year. But the real “juice” in the plant is the powerful safety culture driven by employees.
Delia Deas, health, safety, and environment senior resource, says that if you were to visit the plant and ask an employee, “Who runs your safety program?” the employee would say, “I do, and how can I help you?”
That ownership attitude is symbolized by a uniform worn by all plant employees, regardless of their status. It’s a collared shirt with the words Owner/Operator on the back.
But employee ownership isn’t just a slogan. Titles are not what matters at this plant. What’s important is a shared commitment to the work and to performing it safely. All personnel are fully empowered to shut down a piece of equipment, an entire line, or even the facility itself if they are concerned about unsafe conditions.
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What Failed?
The plant’s safety representatives are another highly visible sign of employee involvement. Once a month, reps from each department meet with Deas, the plant manager, and Kyle Morton, the plant’s health, safety, and environment manager.
New information and program roll-outs are discussed in these meetings. But the heart of the meeting is a comprehensive review of a loss analysis document detailing all incidents that occurred during the month—recordables, near misses, accidents requiring first aid, and environmental incidents.
Deas, who generates the document, explains that each incident is broken down by department, shift, and the program element involved (such as confined space or walking/working surfaces). “Then we figure out what failed. Was there a breakdown in organizational practices? Was it a problem with leadership commitment or employee ownership? Or was it a training issue—a hazard not covered or a new employee not exposed to needed information?”
Based on the findings from the loss analysis, Deas and Morton develop safety topics that address identified needs. These topics, along with other content covered in the meeting, are communicated by safety representatives to employees in their departments.
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Go for It
After safety representatives talk to their co-workers about safety incidents, employees are asked to come up with corrective actions, even for incidents that took place in other departments.
For example, when a near miss occurred at an intersection on the production floor that gets high forklift traffic, an employee recommended a simple but effective fix—placing stop signs at the intersection.
“If you come up with an idea,” says Morton, “you own it.” That might mean using the purchase order system or contacting maintenance about a repair.
Employee engagement is further encouraged through a plantwide structure known as the “high-performance work system.” It identifies natural work teams, which are similar or related work groups. Each team has its own safety leader and mentor.
Weekly, the groups identify an area they wish to focus on, such as tracking OSHA incident rates or identifying root causes of incidents. Morton and Deas are confident about the potential for these teams to continue to drive employee involvement in the company’s safety programs over the long term.
Tomorrow, we’ll tell you about some of the other notable safety programs in place at Tropicana’s City of Industry plant.