Aggregates Manager Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/841719
26 AGGREGATES MANAGER / July 2017 H ousekeeping was an early focus for Sam Ayun when he became the plant safety manager at CalPortland's Rillito Cement Plant. A pre- vious Mine Safety and Health Adminis- tration (MSHA) inspection had generated a number of housekeeping citations, and Ayun viewed it as an opportunity to improve safety. "Anyone in the safety field knows that bad housekeeping not only gives a bad first impression to visi- tors and inspectors, but also subjects the workforce to hazards that are 100-per- cent preventable," he says. The plant had numerous work areas, each with a different workplace exam- ination form. Ayun met with supervisors and employees to discuss requirements and developed a form that included name, date, and area. A section for dis- crepancies is completed only when one is spotted. He circulated a draft version, sought feedback, and made minor mod- ifications until employees were satisfied with the result. Once the form was rolled out, it garnered positive reaction. "I started looking at some of the forms being submitted by the employees, and the majority of them were housekeeping issues, which was fantastic," Ayun says. "We had work groups from maintenance submitting workplace examination forms for housekeeping to our labor crews. We had labor crews submitting work- place examination form discrepancies to electronics. We were crossing over into safety issues for other departments, which was really nice." By opening up communications, employees were able to discuss safety issues without it being viewed as a per- sonal affront or a complaint. After being used for several months, a recent MSHA inspection not only resulted in no house- keeping citations, but a compliment from the inspector on the cleanliness and organization of the plant. "The keys to the program's success are employee input, detailed training, and a form that is quick and easy to docu- ment," Ayun notes. A t Mulzer Crushed Stone, safety training takes place in a variety of ways, ranging from Take Five sessions before a daily task is performed to weekly toolbox meetings to monthly training that targets regulatory require- ments. When planning monthly meetings, Matt Bunner, safety manager, prepares materials specific to the group of em- ployees being trained. "We never have a supervisor cover material that is not relevant to the type of work that they do," he says. The choice of presenter is also critical, Bunner notes: "Covering safety material is as much about performance as it is education. The person who gives the talk has to be passionate about the ma- terial and believe in it, as well as be able to convey it in a manner the employee understands." Since some of the regulatory require- ments have been around for decades — as have some of the miners being trained — the challenge is to make it fresh and interesting. "It's the same ma- terial for most of the employees, so the challenge is to make it relevant," Bunner explains. One way to accomplish that, he says, is to create handouts or hands-on displays that make the segment a little more enjoyable. Another training method that has worked well is to create a sense of competition. For example, for a train- ing session on slips, trips, and falls on walkways, Bunner says he may create a scavenger hunt. The miners are divided into groups and sent out to find exam- ples of a list of pertinent items, such as a good mid-rail or a good toe-board, and take photos on their phones. The team earning the most points on the hunt will win a prize. "Our guys are very competitive, so they like games," Bunner says. "We practice some unconventional safety type things, but we've seen results from these practices." F or more than a decade, CalPort- land Co. has used a customized version of the Mine Safety and Health Administration's (MSHA) SLAM (Stop, Look, Analyze, and Manage) safety training. As part of its modifications, employees complete SLAM reports when they see a potential safety issue. CalPortland's intranet site now contains more than 1,500 SLAM reports filed by employees who have spotted a poten- tial hazard in the field, corrected it, and completed a short write-up for their supervisor. "What I've seen is that it really empowers employees to try to identify something," says Chad Blanchard, cor- porate safety director. "When they have been the ones who have been incorpo- rated into that fix, there is a pride that goes with it. They'll never stop looking for that item. The more they get out and do, the more they'll be looking at safety items and correcting them." Another modification CalPortland has made to MSHA's original program is the use of SLAM handbooks. Any time a new task is introduced or an existing task is changed, the book is utilized to document the task and to complete a job task analysis (JTA) before work begins. Each plant manager is required to submit four SLAM hazard reports per year. The manager passes on that requirement to his or her employees and has them watch for hazards. Typically, Blanchard says, the corporate safety department receives many more reports than required from each plant. One of the program's strengths is involving the employee in resolving the hazard. "Too often, I've been at compa- nies where an employee can call out 10 hazards, but they're not part of the solution, so either the solution fails or the hazard doesn't get fixed," Blanchard says. "The more employees echo what they see out in the field and help with the solution, the better off the industry is going to be." Voices of Experience Sam Ayun Matt Bunner Chad Blanchard