Konecranes’ safety week competition saw participation from elite manufacturing companies and had some inspiring presentations.
by Jayashree Kini Mendes
Safety is an instinct. while it can be imposed at manufacturing plants, it is a measure that should come from within. No one likes losing a limb or their life. While accidents can happen anywhere and anytime, plants are highly prone because of the innumerable machines (of various kinds) and components lying around.
Winners – Mahindra & Mahindra
Adhering to the National Safety Week that India celebrates every year from March 4-10, Konecranes, who staunchly supports this initiative, along with Manufacturing Today, invited companies to compete. They were to make a presentation on some of their best safety practices followed at the plant. Konecranes celebrated Industrial Safety Week from March 6-8 and over three days organised several events that it took nationwide.
Fourteen companies travelled from across the country to make presentations on the safety practices they have implemented at their plants. The day-long event was held at the Konecranes office in Jejuri, an hour-and-a-half away from Pune city. Each participating team was given a 15-minute slot to explain the initiatives they have taken. The Jury was asked to rank them on a score of 1-10 for the content, presentation and the level of safety measures implemented.
Runner up – Gabriel
Welcoming the participants, Ravin Wadhawan, senior director, industrial service, South Asia, Konecranes, said, “As an organisation we are trying to build a culture around safety. It’s not only around manufacturing and service safety, but also as a corporate responsibility. We are also involving our suppliers, contractors and customers in this crusade. Since we are in the business of lifting, our safety standards are very high. Safety Week helps us to relate with the industry and this competition helps each one of us learn from one another.”
S Saikumar, MD, ITP Media (India) introduced the Jury and explained the rules of the competition to the participants. The Jury for the competition comprised Rajesh Nath, MD, VDMA; Pradip Chaudhari, consultant, automotive industry; and Karam Rehani, independent automation consultant, KVR Consultants.
Tough measures
The first presentation was by the AkzoNobel team. They spoke about the culture and mindset change needed within the organisation to ensure safety. They began with educating the shop floor employees on freak accidents and kept communication open with employees on how they could adhere to the existing rules.
The team from Bajaj Auto believes that ensuring safety helps reduce unnecessary cost and maximise output. The company conducts a safety patrol and audit and has incorporated safety rules for shop floor, electric, inter-plant, etc. Experts from each plant travel to other plants to educate employees. Besides this, it has deployed safety scanning for unmanned areas.
Speaking about the three values of integrity, safety and quality, the JBM Group team elucidated how the sheet metal they work with can be hazardous. Considering it has four manual press shops, it needs to go that extra mile to ensure safety. Constant training is integral to that.
The Tata Motors team expounded on the large number of vehicles that move within and outside the plant and how employees are taught safety measures in terms of signals and honking. It has identified several areas of focus where safety measures can be altered such engineering, components picking, etc.
Speaking about V-Guard’s policy, the team explained the four types of safety measures such as environment, product, equipment and employee. The management has issued a diktat that no employee is to violate any of the rules.
The lone ranger from Hyundai Motor India explained the positive safety culture development. Zero deviation, zero incidents and 100% safety is the motto. Safety ambassadors monitor the assembly line and test employees’ fire safety knowledge.
The team from Forbes Marshall stressed that their quest is towards zero incidents. Safety sustainable culture is what it has executed. It has achieved three million safe hours and wants to continue with that before arriving at new rules.
The team from Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages explained how safety percolates from the top management and why every visitor to the factory is first instructed on the safety factors. It ensures that every employee is practicing the safety norms, whether at the factory, or on the road, or at home. Factories are made safe through automation and little human interaction especially where components are concerned.
Anand Automotive Group was represented by Gabriel India who explained the fish-bone diagram that includes lack of machine knowledge and safety features on machines, lack of adequate training and no proper system for skill upgradation, lack of safety among front-line managers, etc. It has evolved a Skill Book for a safe working environment for operator engineers on the shop floor with a unique transparent performance system. The skill book is essential. Points are earned for following all the parameters of the Skill Book.
VECV came up next and detailed its safety vision for the plant. The world class manufacturing system it has adopted has the seven-step method that involves drill bit breakage/drill machine slip/flying chips. The company does a root cause analysis for any injuries that take place at the plant.
Mahindra & Mahindra team explained how the foundry team works. The company analysed reportable and non-reportable injuries and took up the challenge of addressing both. A three-year forecast is planned and TPM helps. Reactive, Proactive and Building safety culture are the three pillars on which safety standards stand.
The next presentation was by Henkel Adhesives who spoke about how they sustain and improve their own track record. Education and SHE e-learning was the primary base on which it spoke. Morning meetings start with a safety talk. The measures have helped in increasing productivity.
Honda Cars India explained how accidents can be caused at plants considering the number of trolleys and forklifts that move around the plant. The company is concerned that shop floor employees are casual about following safety norms. While the assembly line is more safer, it is the movement of vehicles that causes more accidents.
The last presentation was by Volkswagen India who explained about the large number of accidents that would happen once upon a time in the plant. There were challenges to be addressed. This was mainly due to unsafe behaviours among the employees. The company trained employees to identify the hazards and take proactive steps. Some of the hazards were fall from height, electrical shock, confined spaces, falling objects, eye injuries, and cut & pinching.
All participants were given a certificate thanking them for their willingness to travel all the way from across the country.
It was time to felicitate the Jury and give them time to speak their thoughts. They thanked the participants and said that there are too many learnings in what they heard. Making a choice for winner and runner-up was a tough choice.
Finally, it was time to announce the winner. The chits were opened and the Jury gave the runner-up prize of Rs 25,000 and a plaque to the team from Gabriel India. The winner for the day was the team from Mahindra & Mahindra who took home the prize of Rs 75,000 and a plaque.
Saikumar thanked everyone and requested all the participants to gather for a group picture in the lawns outside.