Global and regional companies experience seasonal peculiarities that can have a definite impact on the employees and their families. Last month I received a warning notice from a facility cautioning their employees about “Monsoon June.”
Two of Australia’s indigenous creatures, kangaroos and emus, have something in common – they seldom move backward. Kangaroos, because of the shape of their body and the length of their strong tail, can bounce along with forward movement, but they cannot easily shift into reverse.
The technical detail available to members of our profession is incredible. It also has the potential to be suffocating as the voluminous regulations, ISO policies, procedures, local site requirements, paperwork, basic training, etc. become overwhelming commitments of our time and effort. With all this focus on reactive and condition-based issues, where is the time for a safety engineering focus that goes beyond traditional safety?
A heavy manufacturing organization commonly used Total Quality Manufacturing (TQM) and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) techniques. They had some small Continuous Improvement (CI) Teams that engaged in solving the front line day-to-day difficulties which commonly occur in operations of organizations worldwide.
Recently, one of our safety pro acquaintances made a disturbing discovery --his responsibility for improving safety was being hampered by a culture of evaporative acts in the work groups with whom he was to meet. His approach of engaging in open-ended safety conversations with front line employees had developed trust among many of the people at each of the work sites.
What does it take for a computer to help us do our jobs better and enjoy our lives more? A simplified answer that doesn’t go into nano-detail is that a computer requires both hardware and software to be functional.
A common safety leader’s complaint deals with individuals who fudge the numbers – those who do not report all the injuries and incidents that occur, and those who fudge the severity and do not take incidents as recordable.
There are volumes written on effective goals and how to accomplish them. From a safety perspective, many organizations struggle immensely with setting and achieving effective safety goals that help reduce injuries.
As I was growing up, my Papa would sit me down to discuss reality, philosophies and other aspects of life. He would often pose questions that forced me to think through to a conclusion.
A while back, I read a story about the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) asking for examples of important-sounding, obscure and even bizarre job titles. One of the entries offered her job title of Underwater Ceramic Technician; she was a dishwasher at a restaurant.