Every company will tell you that they’re safe; that they have the best practices, procedures and safeguards. But until they actually build a centralized culture around it, all they’re doing is pushing uphill. At Vulcan, we instill corporate safety because safety goes beyond our door.
This mantra is at the hearts and minds of everyone within our organization. It’s the way we do business and it’s part of our DNA. Since inception, we’ve been tracking no lost time accidents and continuously improving how we approach, educate, implement and communicate safety at our facilities and beyond.
It starts with our people. Every month we have meetings where we report company and department totals and we exhibit these on display boards in every building for all to see. It has been 401 days with no lost time accidents.
We track a comprehensive set of parameters. However, the most important thing we track is employee feedback. At the beginning of each shift we have a 15min safety discussion with employees at each location to talk about individual safety and how every person will be implementing safety into their day. We invest the time and the resources in the safety of our people and products to demonstrate this ongoing commitment.
Vulcan also has periodic meetings called open mic — where the entire company gets together and everyone is encouraged to openly share ideas, give comments and feedback on anything they feel could be done better. The management team listens, documents that information, prioritizes it and updates employees on implementing those improvements.
We pride ourselves on being safe inside and outside of work. As a commitment to our employees and a token of appreciation for hitting our 365 day safety mark, Vulcan gifted free fire extinguishers to every employee — reminding them that safety goes beyond our door.
The best way to ensure safety is to never settle for minimum performance and protocols. We are constantly pushing ourselves to be the very best. We practice a lean methodology here that the manufacturing world is well aware of — 5S manufacturing. We took 5S, modified it and now we call it 6S manufacturing — where Safety is the first “S.” Safety is the top priority for our employees and our guests. This mindset also extends to our customers where we regularly offer ideas and suggestions when they send us products and when we review drawings.
Safety impacts our customers the same as it does our organization. We see things from their perspective. Our customers are all at the top of their markets, so it’s critical that safety is a key aspect of everything we provide, and everything they provide their customers with. In many of the contracts we are involved in, there is significant focus on safety, risk and liability. Our customers want to ensure that everything is made properly, delivered to specification and clearly marked. These are things our customers demand of us and we challenge ourselves to go above and beyond with our implementation.
We look forward to our ongoing commitment to safety for our employees, our customers and our belief that safety goes beyond our door.