Aggregates Manager Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/841719
18 AGGREGATES MANAGER / July 2017 PLANT PROFILE that the quarry was in operation. They placed the bucket of a loader over the bed of a haul truck, placed a loader with its bucket in a pile of material, pulled in a train and placed the bucket of a loader over the last railcar, and placed an excavator with a breaker as if it was breaking a large rock. Of course, the equipment was chocked and locked for safety purposes, but the runners ran by each one of them along the coarse, and onlookers could see them in work position from the overlook. "The run was extremely successful on several fronts," Frank adds. "It opened up the doors to the community so people got to go in a quarry that they'd never seen before. We got to interact with the soldiers, and they accomplished their mission." Dinosaurs on site Another bright spot, the fossils of more than a dozen reptiles and 12 amphibi- ans have been found at Richards Spur Quarry since it began operation. The fossil of one of the amphibians was completely unknown and was named after Dolese. It was named Doleserpeton. For years, geologists and others could come in and search for dinosaur fossils and take what they found with them. There was some concern for safety when they were on site, but it wasn't until some of the fossils found at the quarry started turning up for sale on the internet that things changed. "Mr. Dolese didn't like that," Frank says, explaining that he struck a deal with the Natural History Museum at Oklahoma University (OU) to take every fossil found in the quarry. "We don't allow the gathering of fossils by outsid- ers anymore. If something's found here, it has to go to the museum at OU." AM Dolese rethinks safety Dolese Bros. is developing a safety culture within the com- pany that covers all its divisions — aggregates, concrete, block, and general shop. "About 3 1/2 years ago, we partnered with Cat Safety Services," says Melvin Barks, operations manager. "Prior to that time, our standard safety culture was a one-hour safety meeting once a month. We also did MSHA training and task training, but we didn't really talk about safety a lot. Under new leadership, there was more emphasis put on safety, so we started looking at different programs and partnered with Cat Safety Services." The first thing the company did was rethink safety. It stepped away from just being compliant and doing what was required to doing what was right to keep its workers safe. The company started having what it calls Catwalk Conversations, which are short safety talks and conversa- tions about safety, rather than meetings. "Every plant's a little bit different," Barks notes. "Some do them two or three times a week, some every day. Some are in a break room setting, some are out in the field. Some are where a lead man or supervisor sees somebody doing something and takes the opportunity for coaching. They might say, 'Hey, let's talk about what you're doing.' The whole culture is what's changing. It's not just Rich- ards Spur, it's the entire company." When Dolese originally partnered with Cat Safety Ser- vices, it did a Safety Perception Survey to see what areas needed to be addressed and to learn where the company was falling short on safety. A Safety Steering team was formed, as well as a Continuous Improvement team made up of hourly employees from all the different divisions of the company who work in the field. The survey results helped the teams identify and target areas that needed to be addressed. Catwalk Conversations was one of the things that came out of that survey. The one problem that the teams encountered was that people from the concrete division didn't understand the safety challenges that aggregate people face, and vice versa. So, this year, there will be three Continuous Im- provement teams — one for aggregates, one for ready mix, and one for general shop and masonry. Each team will be made up of nine hourly employees from that division. They will look at the survey and decide what they want to work on. "We had our second Safety Perception Survey late in 2016," Barks says. "The turnaround was dramatic. Cat said it was one of the largest turnarounds that they had ever seen. They did a presentation at ConExpo-Con/Agg showcasing what we were able to do. We're still advanc- ing and looking to improve on safety." Through its new safety culture, Dolese Bros. Co. started having Catwalk Conversations, which provide a chance for employees to discuss safety at the plant. Dolese Bros. partnered with Cat Safety Services to develop a safety culture that looked at safety in a different way. It goes beyond being compliant by doing what's right to keep its employees safe. continued on page 21