Safety & The Challenge Of Prevention BY ROY OBERG There have been lots of global health scares over the past bunch of years: Avian Flu, Swine Flu, Ebola, SARS, and
more. But none have had the impact on people all over the globe the way COVID-19 has these past few weeks, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere anytime soon. Businesses all over the country and world have been shut down. All non-essential work has been grind-
Roy Oberg
ed to a halt in parts of the country. CEOs from companies I’m not sure I’ve ever bought things from have sent me emails explaining…something? I think most of us have nev- er been as thankful for the people that stock our grocery stores as we are now. (Though, toilet paper? Really, peo- ple? Toilet paper?) I’m fortunate to be in a position that I can tell my em- ployees to stay home and be safe, and that they can still be productive contacting the industry from the comfort of their homes. Three weeks in, we’re all going a little bit cra- zy, but I’m finally getting my arms around the technology required to work from home. But you’ve all heard enough about COVID-19, so I’m going to use it as a way to pivot and talk about a more industry-related topic: Safety Every facility, every company, talks about the fact that safety is the #1 priority. I think we all know that it’s just talk in most of those companies. As a visitor to many facilities over the years, you can tell pretty quickly which facilities take safety seriously. If you see an operator leaning over a machine with a giant gold chain hanging from his neck, faded safety lines on the floor, and guys all over the floor on their phones, you know that the facility you’re in doesn’t value safety. It’s time to politely excuse yourself from the premises. Facilities that are well lit, where you see the locks on the machine if there are people inside and proper PPE be- ing worn around the building? I’ll tour those places all day and feel totally comfortable. Now, it’s important to note that not every facility has the budget to implement as many of the safety programs and install as much of it as some of the major integrateds do. That doesn’t mean that these facilities aren’t safe, it just means they have to be more proactive in how they act to do things safely. I like to think that this becomes less tech- nology-based safety, and more human- and system-based safety in those facilities. At the end of the day, the thing I’ve found is a good way to judge whether a facility values safety is how often they talk about it. Not to me or potential new hires, but to the people within the facility. Facilities that value safety tend
CONTINUED ON PAGE 22
20
www.boardconvertingnews.com
April 13, 2020
Made with FlippingBook Publishing Software