When Mike Kalbaugh took the safety job for two Avery Dennison label manufacturing plants in Cleveland and Strongsville, Ohio, employees had a pool running on how long he’d last. Eight months was the longest bet. And why not — Mike was the fourth EHS manager in a year to tackle the task of turning around the two plants, both which ranked in the bottom ten of Avery’s 125 manufacturing sites worldwide.
Mike knew one thing going in — “One person can’t do it alone. It’s a ‘We’ concept,†he said at a ceremony earlier this year honoring him as the 2003 KellerOnline Safety Professional of the Year. (KellerOnline is an Internet-based safety management tool sold on a subscription basis by J.J. Keller & Associates, Inc.) Obviously, Mike’s story has a happy ending.