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365 days without an accident in Wood Processing Plant in Rzepedź, Poland - Seprember 2018
Two Nowy Styl production plants in Jasło, Poland – Plastic Processing Plant and Office Furniture Factory– celebrated two years without accidents. The success proves that building a culture of safety is time very well spent.
Ten years ago hardly anyone believed that you can have a full year without a single accident in any Nowy Styl production plant. In this industry, with this technology, it’s just impossible! – such was the response to the statements offered by Dariusz Frydrych, a newly appointed member of the board, who set out to improve safety of production. The situation did call for action, because in 2008 alone there were nearly 90 accidents in our plants, which made more or less one accident every four days. – “We can improve safety, but we need a systemic solution and a joint effort,” claimed Dariusz Frydrych.
Impossible becomes a fact
His enthusiasm and belief in success proved contagious. He managed to convince more and more people to join him in this effort and soon those people became the ambassadors of the change in their work environment. And after a while we witnessed a breakthrough. Safety level soared from year to year and in 2016 the Chair Production Plant in Jasło celebrated the first 365 days without an accident. This is how impossible became a fact.
No accidents - a case in point
But for those responsible for safe production processes – workplace safety and supervisors of individual plants – it was only the first step of a long journey. 2018 saw another 12 consecutive months without an accident. The first one to celebrate this was the Office Furniture Factory in Jasło (in July), which was followed in August by the Plastic Processing Plant and in September – by the Wood Processing Plant in Rzepedź, which was our greatest success.
- Rzepedź is the most challenging production plant as regards workplace safety. This is a facility with the highest number of potential threats, such as open rotating tools. That’s why a whole year without accidents was a genuine accomplishment there, said Dariusz Frydrych with visible satisfaction.
Two pillars of the safety culture
But it was not the end yet. Building the safety culture is a continuous process, with no time to call it a day. Two flagship programmes were pursued to boost safety in the production plants. The first one included cascade audits conducted jointly by the workplace safety team and the supervisors of the plant. During such audits each single work station and each stage of the technological process was subject to close scrutiny. As a result, more than 1100 potential threats were detected each year. Further areas of risk were pointed out by the employees themselves, who took part in the Programme for Reporting Near Misses. One by one, all the threats were gradually eliminated.
Awareness and order
Consistency in pursuing these programmes was worth the effort. Today, in all our plants together we observe just a few minor incidents per year. Two of them - the Plastic Processing Plant and the Office Furniture Factory – have even achieved a truly impressive score of two consecutive years without a single accident. For Roman Kudroń, the head of the Plastic Processing Plant, the past 24 months are a proof of immense responsibility on the part of his team: “In the production of plastic elements we use heavy injection moulds with sharp edges, and the plastic must be heated up to 300°C and then injected into the mould under a pressure of 1000 atm. Despite such threats, proper maintenance of the machines, relevant technology and appropriate workplace organisation make it possible to create a safe work environment.”
Marek Warzocha, head of the Office Furniture Production Plant, adds: “Two years without an accident prove that our employees treat workplace safety very seriously. They are aware of the existing threats and able to respond promptly and properly in a hazardous situation. I would like to thank you for this.”
Self-propelling safety engine
Coming back to Dariusz Frydrych, he is happy that the safety programme has become a sort of a self-propelling engine by now. “We are now all working towards a common goal. It’s not about beating records, but about genuine care and attention. We all want our colleagues to come home safely after each day at work,” he explains.
Another milestone ahead of us is 1000 days without an accident.