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How the Team Approach to Safety Can Rescue the Bottom Line
How the Team Approach to Safety Can Rescue the Bottom Line
By Ted Cowie
The proper personal protective equipment helps reduce both the risk and high cost of occupational injuries.
Protecting your workers - it's mandated by OSHA 1910, Subpart I, 1910.132(a). Protecting your bottom line - it makes the difference between black and red ink.
The challenge is in doing both - that is, providing the best quality, best-performing personal protective equipment (PPE) for your facility and simultaneously keeping operating costs down. In many cases, the solution to this formidable task is in taking a team approach.
In some industries, procurement departments and safety directors - who formerly may have had conflicting objectives - now find themselves working together to achieve a well-balanced PPE program. Then, by bringing in an outside safety specialist, such as a full-service safety distributor representing literally hundreds of manufacturers, the team's task of matching equipment to application is made easier. These outside specialists have the experience to help determine how best to allocate limited resources while effectively preventing workplace accidents. As a result of their collaboration, this team of safety, purchasing and "outside counsel" yields better results than the in-house team could alone.
Safety First Helps Control Costs
Making safety a priority is a good economic decision. Preventing injuries in the first place with the proper use of PPE is an effective method of controlling the high costs associated with injuries. But despite the best efforts made by industry, compliance remains a problem. Although that's a subject for another day, let's look at the injury statistics.
Examining the Need for Protection
In 1999, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, reported 1,702,470 occupational injuries causing lost workdays and 5,488 workplace injuries leading to fatalities. Protective equipment could have prevented a significant number of these accidents that, on average, cost approximately $28,000 per incident and $910,000 per fatality (1998, National Safety Council). Costs include estimated wage losses, medical expenses, administrative and employer costs per worker, plus environmental and repair costs, for a total cost to American industry of $125.1 billion in 1998, escalating to $131.2 billion in 2000. Contrast that with the $3.8 billion spent by the total industrial market on personal protective equipment in 2000 and it is clear that a new strategy is required in the area of workplace accident prevention.
Beginning A Culture of Prevention
So, employers looking at the bottom line and finding too much reactive rather than proactive spending on safety have a challenge. How do they ensure that safety equals protection and that protection equals savings?
One key to preventing workplace injuries is by properly matching protective wear to the given applications. However, a dizzying array of protective equipment is available, and after employers determine the need for it, they must select it, issue it, and provide training to every employee required to use it. The plant's safety director and purchasing staff will find that establishing a culture of prevention is easier with the help of a safety specialist, who will assess potential risks through a careful and complete analysis of a plant's safety program, including input from employees and management.
Some full service safety equipment distributors offer this type of facility analysis at no charge, which will include written recommendations on equipment and may include conducting the training programs. After completing this type of PPE survey and implementing the improved PPE program, most companies are surprised that, in addition to a reduction in the number of costly accidents, savings are realized in terms of more efficient purchasing as well. The survey shows that intelligent PPE purchasing leads to a desirable balance of safety and savings.
Whenever possible, of course, facilities should make plans to remove or "engineer out" workplace hazards uncovered by the safety survey. Although zero risk can never truly be attained, every facility has a responsibility to minimize risk to workers first by removing hazards. In the meantime, organizations such as the Institute for Safety Through Design, an entity of the National Safety Council, are working to reduce injuries by promoting the design of systems and machinery using real-world safety concepts and techniques. Until then, a well-conceived PPE program can literally be a lifesaver.
How the Facility Safety Analysis Creates Value
A facility safety analysis can help change the focus of a PPE program from simply compliance to compliance plus added value. If the company's current protocol is to buy the least expensive protective wear for each application (basic compliance), an analysis by an unbiased third party could reveal that higher quality equipment would last longer, resulting in long-term cost savings.
In addition to assigning value to product durability, properly matching PPE to the application offers a host of other benefits that directly impact a company's bottom line, including lower purchasing costs, fewer accidents and increased productivity.
For example, the analysis may uncover that, for workers performing a given application, less glove, not more, is required for the task. The survey might also show that eye protection enclosed by a soft foam edge will keep dust and perspiration out of workers' eyes.
Put into practice, the survey results save the company in a number of ways. Buying less glove (e.g., lighter or more flexible) immediately saves money on glove purchasing. This allows for an additional investment in eye protection. In addition, replacing a bulky glove reduces worker fatigue, immediately improving worker productivity. The new eye protection has a similar effect on worker productivity but the switch has the added benefit of being popular with the work force. They recognize and appreciate the additional investment and feel more confident facing the hazard. In the end, the more comfortable protection is more likely to stay on, improving compliance, which in turn reduces workplace accidents.
An appendix to OSHA 1910, Non-mandatory Compliance Guidelines for Hazard Assessment and PPE Selection (1910 Subpart I App B) recommends a facility survey "to assess the need for PPE by determining hazards and level of risk to employees."
Looking more specifically at safety wear, the compliance solutions provided by a facility survey are designed to identify the protective equipment that will provide the best value in every sense.
The Safety Director's Side
A safety director's top priorities must be preventing injury and complying with OSHA standards for the use of personal protective equipment. Specifying appropriate PPE, such as safety footwear or eye and face protection, is only the first step. The key to preventing injuries is getting workers to wear PPE in the first place. When you look at protective footwear, for instance, look at the application involved and ask, how much protection is needed? For indoor or outdoor work? Is slip-resistance of prime importance? How crucial is comfort? What is the history of foot injuries for this job? Talk to workers and ask what they think they need to get the job done safely. When you consider your operators as experts in their tasks and give them some say in a decision, they are more likely to comply.
It makes sense to rely on an outside professional for advice. No safety director can possibly know all there is to know about PPE. Working with an expert is the best way to analyze your operation task by task, looking at potential and real hazards. Then you can determine which equipment provides the proper level of protection for a task and therefore the best value.
While workers' safety is paramount, the costs of a PPE program are a significant consideration. Yet in some cases, these costs must be strictly controlled. That is where a conflict can arise between safety directors and purchasing. A facility analysis by a safety professional can help you make choices that align with your objectives.
The Purchasing Director's Side
A major concern of purchasing directors is excess inventory that ties up resources and drains the bottom line. For help in reducing inventory, consult with a safety professional. A facility PPE survey can help significantly to achieve inventory reduction or consolidation. Often, companies find that one item will work for more than one task when previously, several styles were used.
Another way to achieve inventory reduction is by implementing an on-site safety center, which is an independent "safety store" and training center that is staffed and stocked by a full-service safety distributor. The on-site safety center takes care of fitting and dispensing safety equipment from protective eyewear to respiratory equipment. The advantages include eliminating any in-house inventory of safety supplies while also eliminating processing time for purchase orders, receiving and sourcing spot buys.
Remember that while consolidating purchases and reducing inventory can save money, no single manufacturer could possibly have the "best" product for every need. It would be wise to tap the expertise of the outside counsel for a variety of options for almost any application.
Also remember that input from end users is important in gaining acceptance for new equipment. When new supplies are issued, an effective training program goes a long way in making workers comfortable about using and caring for it.
Work Together for Best Results
A facility analysis by a safety professional can offer real cost savings to a company, both in injury prevention and inventory reduction. But the professional's recommendations will work best when safety directors and procurement specialists work together to introduce the new program and implement the change.
A safety specialist can also educate and advise you as developments in PPE technology occur. Training programs conducted or supplied by the safety professional are also valuable tools for promoting compliance. For additional help, the National Safety Council offers a variety of workplace safety training materials and programs, including on-site training. Also in the works for NSC is a special project to develop safety training materials aimed specifically at young and teenage workers, who, as a group, have significantly higher injury rates on the job than older, more experienced workers.
In Conclusion
What can a facility safety director do to protect workers and allow them to perform their jobs confidently, with a reduced risk of injuries? What can a purchasing director do to reduce the facility's expenditures on protective equipment? How can they combine forces to protect the bottom line?
For many companies, a safety analysis conducted in partnership with an outside, unbiased safety specialist is the answer to these questions. After all, your workers are your company's most valuable asset. When you protect them, everybody wins.
Ted Cowie is the President, Chief Operating Officer for Safety Today's Protective Products Group, Columbus, Ohio. Safety Today provides personal protective equipment and safety-related services to industrial customers as well as safety resources and supplies to the foodservice industry. For a FREE Safety Audit, call 800-837-5900.
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