The frontline teams at pump manufacturer Davey are engaged and participating in lean activities on a daily basis. This has driven them to the lowest injury rate in their 80-year history and workcover premiums are the lowest they’ve ever been.
CLIENT
Davey Water Products is a Melbourne-headquartered manufacturer of high-quality pumps for customers throughout the world.
CHALLENGE
Davey trialled a ‘Safety Champions’ program, which gave staff authority and responsibility for safety over a full day. On a daily rotating roster, staff were tasked to;
- Complete a safety observation and have a conversation about safety
- Find a safety concern and raise an action to have it rectified
- Reward a staff member for good safety practices
- De-brief with leaders the next working day by attending the morning safety discussion with Team leaders
The trial was successful with 110 opportunities for improvement identified and implemented. Davey decided to embed the safety champion concept into each team, however it was taking up to 2 hours of administration each week with one safety champion, let alone one per team. Davey wanted a more efficient approach to capturing and sharing this information.
SOLUTION
The Safety Champions program was integrated into daily management by utilising TeamAssurance on the shop floor and at Daily Operations meetings and Team meetings.
- Instead of capturing information on paper, the frontline used tablets on the shop floor to capture information directly into the TeamAssurance app
- Photos were added to clearly illustrate the safety concerns
- Actions were linked to the Safety incidents, so that the frontline could track progress and completion. This ensured follow-up was controlled and the feedback loop encouraged further continuous improvement from the shop floor
- Maintenance were able to immediately identify urgent safety concerns and prioritise
- Good safety practices (that were previously verbally discussed with individuals) were able to be logged and then shared via touchscreens with all teams so that it became a positive reinforcement of safety culture
- Additionally, safety objectives were made visible to the entire organisation, deployed to the shop floor and teams were given safety targets to achieve
RESULTS
- Improved culture of sharing and discussing safety concerns in the work place
- Increased awareness – staff are more vigilant and more willing to discuss safety concerns
- Every staff member has visibility of all safety concerns and is motivated to improve the safety culture
- Team leaders have reduced administration tasks, and become more involved in safety discussions and corrective actions to help improve safety across the site
- A continuous improvement approach to safety across the site has been achieved
- Closeout of actions happens at a much faster rate, and no action goes missing once raised
SCORECARD
- Lowest injury rate on record
- 20% lower injuries than previous best
- Workcover premiums are the lowest they’ve ever been: 0.58% of wages, which is 43% better than the industry average
- 180 Safety Activities raised over 10 months, including;
– 37 Safety Incidents recorded
– 33 Safety Actions completed
– 20 Safety Behaviour Observations
– 25 Safety Improvements implemented
– 54 Safety Maintenance Requests completed
– 10 Safety One Point Lessons shared
– 7 Safety Goals deployed
