Safety Strategy and Approach to Near Misses
8/29/2007
I am sure that by now you have heard of our World Champion performance in Safety. We have achieved over 600 plus days without a recordable injury, we are working to sustain this outstanding performance. The Mission of the Safety Committee is to discuss and convey safety trends and the safety performance of the organization, and to develop strategies for providing a safe and injury free work environment.
Our Safety strategy encompasses many components including: Training, Awareness, Recognition and Risk Reduction as represented by our Near Miss Program. Note: A Near Miss is defined as an event that could have but did not result in a recordable injury.
DCP’s Safety Committee has taken a proactive approach to near misses by analyzing each near miss by cause and occurrence, in recognition of the fact that repetitive near misses are leading indicators of accident and injury potential. Our Near Miss focus allows us to proactively address risk and thus avoid and prevent accidents rather than react to them after the fact.
Our team is reviewing historical raw data comparing metrics from 2006 and 2007. Near misses are categorized according to causes (machinery, material, methods, manpower and environment). The team also reviews the correlation of near miss data when compared to Quality, the time of day the near miss occurred and workload. Data is further analyzed by teams, workstations and individuals.
Root cause analysis is helping the team to determine if near misses are repetitive. In evaluating the effectiveness of our responses to near misses, the team asks:
Does the containment action work?
Does permanent corrective action prevent reoccurrences?
Unresolved and/or uncontained near misses threaten the well being of our associates. The deep-dive approach to examining near misses heightens the safety awareness of all DCP associates and ensures that our safety performance remains World Champion plant wide.
Vincent Lenoir, Manager - Engineering and Safety
Contact: Linda Ratliff, 313-571-2100 x 506, lratliff@detroitchassis.com