Story Archives

Nifco UK's strategy for continuously improving the health, safety and welfare of its workforce uses a "Plan, Do, Check, Act" cycle. Since 2007, the safety management system has been integrated with those for quality management and environmental management, with the policies developed and recorded in a common format. This ensures that documentation - including corrective action reporting - is consistent and up-to-date. Nifco's trained auditors work in a methodical manner across the systems.

The judges commended the quality of communication within the company - H&S Plans are at the top of agenda of site briefings, and plans are monitored at monthly management reviews. From 2008-2009, formal health and safety objectives have featured in all individual performance appraisals across the site.

Nifco UK's hazard mapping and near-miss reporting system began in 2007, with visual monitoring of incident locations, and plotting on a site map to facilitate corrective action. As a result, from 2009, safety awareness training has focused on particular areas of the site.

The significant involvement of outside organisations in Nifco UK's continuous improvement programme drew praise from the judges.

Annual audits by the British Safety Council began in 2004, and these help to identify H&S problems and corresponding countermeasures for action. Networking initiatives were escalated in 2008, with occasional site invitations to professional safety-related organisations such as the fire brigade, environmental health department and HSE. Nifco UK is also involved with a local area H&S Group, and with the borough council's wellbeing campaign.

A workforce survey has shown that, overall, staff consider Nifco a safe place to work. This is borne out by the record of safety-related incidents under RIDDOR - just one incident was recorded in 2008.

Finalists

CooperVision Manufacturing UK

Injection moulder CooperVision has been empowering its "Representatives of Employees" (ROEs) to improve their safety knowledge through recognised qualifications and practical experience, and to use their skills to raise safety awareness throughout the company's UK sites. There are 22 ROEs, covering all departments including manufacturing facilities, laboratories and offices.

Training for ROEs, offered via in-house courses, includes risk assessment, "train the trainer", manual handling and spillage control, and the ROEs themselves offer localised safety training to their teams in the latter two subjects. They also perform routine safety audits in their areas, from which they can directly raise any non-conformances with their area managers. ROEs also qualify in Occupational Health & Safety at Certificate Level 2 via a college course. The ROEs are allowed time away from their day-to-day roles to perform audits and attend training.

CooperVision reports that its level of RIDDOR-reportable accidents has significantly reduced since the empowerment programme was implemented - to significantly below the overall manufacturing average, and around half the plastics manufacturing average.

Hi-Technology Group

The H&S strategy of polymer processor Hi-Technology Group is driven via several routes: monthly safety steering committee meetings; relevant training as required (e.g. manual handling, first aid); maintaining a display board showing accidents/improvements and action registers. Hi-Technology Group is in the final stages of transferring all hard-copy health and safety data to a "Click4safety" electronic system, which records and schedules manual handling issues, fire assessments, risk assessments, COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health) assessments, and all safety-related work procedures ("lone worker" etc.)

The H&S steering committee meets monthly, to drive through as many initiatives and improvements as practicable. The committee is employee-driven, with staff setting the list of actions and agreeing their "ownership". Director liaison is via the monthly management meeting.

Hi-Technology Group recognises a particular responsibility for the well-being of its late shift personnel, who are offered a professional annual health check.

Hi-Technology Group has shown a steady year-on-year improvement in accident statistics since 2004.

Copyright 2009 Crain Communications Ltd. All Rights Reserved.