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February 22, 2007
The Safety Culture War:
Three Things You can do to Improve Your Safety Culture
By Carl and Deb Potter
Is there a Culture War in your Workplace?
Not too long ago an executive of a large company in a high-risk industry proudly displayed his handsome new shirt. The shirt had a company logo. Below the logo was a large "7" in bright yellow and a line below that read: Reduce Injuries to 7 in 2007.
What this leader didn't understand was that he was contributing to the safety culture war in his organization. Yet research shows that not every one has the same beliefs when it comes to workplace safety.
One Organization, Three Cultures
Think about your organization for a moment. Does everyone seem to be on the same page when it comes to safety? It's likely that if you spend time talking to people in different parts of the organization, you'll soon learn that you can group people into three categories of safety beliefs: workers, engineers, and executives. These three categories don't necessarily represent job titles, but rather viewpoints when it comes to safety. These perspectives represent safety sub-cultures in your organization. The farther apart the beliefs of the sub-cultures, the deeper the divide in your organization.
Different Perspectives, Different Beliefs
Let's examine the three sub-cultures that seem to exist in most organizations:
1. Workers. Front-line employees who face hazards daily in the course of their work want to know that they can go home every day without an injury. They want to know that their leaders are there to create and support an environment where nobody gets hurt. The perspective in this sub-culture is people.
Engineers. The engineering sub-culture typically is concerned about systems and equipment. People in this sub-culture want to know how to improve equipment, tools, and processes to improve safety. They rely on statistics as their yard-stick. After an incident occurs, the focus is on improving equipment or systems. The perspective in this sub-culture is process.
Executives. The executive sub-culture focuses on the cost of safety, usually in terms of dollars. This culture may include executives and managers as well as people with accounting and budgeting responsibilities. The primary question these people ask is: How much is that going to cost? The perspective in this sub-culture is profits.
These different beliefs exist in an organization primarily because of the perspective that different parts of the organization play and because they haven't been exposed to different perspectives or a unifying perspective.
Stop the Culture War
As a leader in your organization, you can bring together different perspectives into one ideal: nobody gets hurt. Here are three things to consider:
Adopt an expectation that no one gets hurt doing their job.
Be vocal - let people know what's important to you. The reality is that no on can argue with a belief that is focused on everyone going home every day without an injury.
Start today to express your desire that nobody gets hurt on or off the job.
Organize your daily calendar to include safety as a priority.
If you're like most people, if it doesn't get put on the calendar, it won't get done. Make it a habit to schedule at least on safety-related high value activity.
Begin every day by scheduling time to include a safety specific activity.
Show your appreciation to employees who demonstrate a high regard for safety.
One of the best ways to build a culture that is focused on the goal that "nobody gets hurt" is to involve people -- the more, the better. And, people want to get involved when they feel appreciated and are acknowledged for their efforts.
Take time every day to thank an employee for his or her efforts to create an injury-free workplace.
Hope for a Common Goal
No matter how divided your organization's safety culture seems to be, you can make a difference. It doesn't matter what your job title is, you can make a difference by leading others around you to create an environment where nobody gets hurt. That's a goal everyone can live with!
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Carl Potter, CSP, CMC and Deb Potter, PhD, CMC work with organizations that target a zero-injury workplace so everyone can go home to their families every day without injury. As advocates of a zero-injury workplace, they are speakers, authors, and consultants to industry. For information about bringing Carl and Deb to your company or your next conference, contact them at Potter and Associates International, Inc. 800-259-6209 or www.SimplySeamlessSafety.com
Posted by Industrial at 03:43 AM | Comments (0)
February 20, 2007
NEW WARNER ELECTRIC MAGNETIC CAPPING HEADSETS
February 20, 2007 — South Beloit, IL — Warner Electric announces innovative new magnetic capping headsets that drop into new or existing rotary capping machines. These new headsets demonstrate improved performance over the traditional synchronous OEM headsets.
Warner Electric Magnetic Capping Headsets feature smooth torque magnetic technology; eliminating pulsing, vibration, and its related product and maintenance problems. The headsets also provide fast, precise torque adjustment and long-lasting, dependable performance.
The bottling industry has spent years struggling with the challenge of OEM capping machines using synchronous clutches with pulsating torque. OEM headsets tighten caps with a pulsating or hammering impact magnetic torque. This pulsating or hammering impact torque causes shock loads which lead to cap over-tightening, inconsistent removal torques, and accelerated wear on machine parts, especially spindle assemblies and retention knives.
Warner Electric Magnetic Capping Headsets feature smooth torque magnetic technology. These headsets are magnetic, but the static torque is perfectly smooth, with no pulsations or pounding. Smooth torque technology reduces variation in removal torque, providing the most consistent torque control on the market. This technology reduces shock on the system, enabling longer life of machine components, retention knives, and capping headsets.
Warner Electric Magnetic Capping Headsets have visual setting scales for top-load force and static torque adjustments. This makes it easy and quick to accurately set headset top load and static torque. All-stainless-steel construction, quad seals, and drain holes enable the unit to withstand frequent washdowns. Warner Electric makes it simple to upgrade existing equipment without expensive retrofitting or modification by providing drop-in replacements and 100-percent interchangeability with major OEM headset models. Most rotary capping machines can be easily retrofitted with this new technology, making the change both cost effective and time efficient.
For more information about Warner Electric’s new Magnetic Capping Headsets, visit www.cappingclutch.com, or call 888-350-1891.
Headquartered in South Beloit, Ill., Warner Electric is a global supplier of industrial clutches, brakes, clutch/brake controls, tensioning systems, and sensors and switches. Warner Electric is a member of Altra Industrial Motion, a world-class marketing and manufacturing leader with hundreds of years of industrial manufacturing experience.
Posted by Industrial at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)