Making safety a priority: if the metalcasting industry is to continue to survive and thrive, it must improve its safety rate, just as ferrous caster Lufkin Industries recently did.

Plant insurance. Product liability insurance. Vehicle insurance. We all purchase insurance to protect our assets from loss. But the cast components made and sold by metalcasters are produced by people, not just machines or facilities. How well are we protecting that asset? Although the metalcasting industry has improved in recent years, the industry's record for worker safety still lags behind other manufacturing sectors (Tables 1 and 2).

In addition to business benefits and the moral obligation to protect our workers and provide them a safe workplace, many metalcasting facilities also fight an ongoing battle with their local communities. The industry often is perceived as a heavy polluting, unsafe business that is unconcerned with environmental issues and worker safety. According to industry marketing experts, this perception can embolden activists and lead to increased stress in dealing with community groups and local government officials. A clean plant and a great safety record is the industry's best community relations tool to address those negative perceptions. Demonstrated care for the industry's people will help ensure the long term success of the metalcasting operation.

Over the past several years, the safety management group at oil field equipment and power transmission product manufacturer Lufkin Industries, Lufkin, Texas, has offered the metalcasting industry an example of how effective plant management can improve safety and control risk. Under the direction of plant manager Steve Reynolds and safety manager Duane Hartman, the metalcaster has achieved more than 2 million man hours worked without a lost time accident during a span of two years. The company's accident rate also is well below the national average for iron metalcasting facilities (Figs. 1a and 1b).

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Following is a look at how Lufkin has achieved those notable safety improvements.

Training the Workers

According to Hartman, the focus on worker safety at Lufkin began with an emphasis on worker training. The company's initial safety training orientation includes a discussion of risk behaviors and hazard recognition and awareness, such as hand safety and ergonomics. Lufkin started the program in 2006 when the company was hiring new employees. Lufkin wanted the new hires to ask, "How do I keep safe day in and day out?"

"A lot of our new guys coming in had limited industrial experience, so we revised our new hire orientation to incorporate those high risk things that they really need to know," Hartman said.

Lufkin reinforces this initial orientation with monthly safety training meetings attended by all employees and conducted by a corporate environmental, health and safety (EHS) team in tandem with department supervisors and the plant safety committee personnel. The meeting typically includes:

* an Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA) topic (energy isolation, blood-borne pathogens, confined spaces, crane safety and operation, etc.);

* injury and illness summary updates to address current trends or issues and year-to-date or month-to-date injuries by department;

* results of monthly safety inspections.

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Hartman said one thing that has strongly contributed to Lufkin's success was the addition of daily safety talks prior to starting each shift. The 10- to 15-minute talks give workers a chance to discuss any recent injuries from the previous shift or several days and hot topics provided by the EHS department. A key part of this daily meeting is open discussion where employees are encouraged to voice their concerns about potential problems or hazards in their workplace.

"As employees come to work, they come in with their mind sometimes thinking about home, paying their bills, family issues and other things," Hartman said. "[The meetings] get them in line and-ready and put their mind in a safety mindset to go out and do their job safely."

Involving the Workers

Involving the employees in Lufkin's safety program is a key element to success, according to Hartman. To improve employee involvement, the company has developed a Safety Committee, which includes corporate EHS personnel, the general manager, one supervisor and one committee person from each department and each shift. Typical Safety Committee meetings (held about once a month) cover a safety topic such as blood-borne pathogens, fall protection, energy isolation, etc., and include a session to train the trainers, where the administrators help teach the committee members how to conduct a safety training meeting. The committee members then train the employees in their respective areas during the monthly safety meeting, so the training is conducted by a coworker rather than corporate safety personnel. Safety committee members also conduct monthly safety inspections in their specific department.

To further involve and empower employees, the Lufkin safety program has expanded these Safety Committee inspections with the development of an orange tag program to help identify and tag potential plant hazards. The orange tag committee members, including department managers, EHS personnel and members from each department, conduct periodic wall-to-wall inspections of a single department. The group involves about 15 members, and the inspection process lasts between one and three hours, depending on department size and complexity. This detailed inspection covers everything in the department, including all equipment, electrical components and all employees for personal protective equipment and ergonomic issues.

Once identified, all hazards or deficiencies are marked with an orange tag and removed from service. Orange tag hazards are given to the department manager, who immediately starts the corrective action process. All orange tag items are tracked and followed to ensure the hazard is addressed, and recent orange tag inspections are discussed and addressed in monthly safety meetings and employee training sessions. This program also becomes part of the overall safety training program, as employees see the orange tag and are able to read it to understand the potential hazard.

Hartman said that since the inception of the orange tag inspection process in February 2006, the committee has identified and removed a total of 1,017 safety deficiencies and hazards.

The Lufkin safety plan also includes incentives. Employees receive a catered lunch for every 100 days without a lost time injury, and each receives a gift for every 250 days worked without incident. At milestones of 500 and 1,000 days, the value of the awards increases. Hartman said it is important to keep workers from viewing the gifts and lunches as an entitlement. The company attempts to maintain an air of celebration when the time has been set aside for a reward.

"It is all or none," Hartman said. "Everybody works together to achieve this, and everyone understands that this is not just a safety incentive program rewarding you for something. This is recognition for achieving so many days without someone being injured to the extent that they could not return to work."

Stopping Accidents Where They Start

A final key element of the safety program at Lufkin is the regular determination of the reason behind every accident or near-accident through root cause analysis (RCA), which is conducted on all OSHA recordable injuries, all incidents requiring first aid and all near-last cases with laugh-seventy potential.

Though Lufkin was investigating all accidents prior to this program, Haman said that management found the investigations often fell short and repeat accidents still occurred. At the time, the safety team treated the investigations as more of a regulatory matter, where the supervisor would fill out the required accident report form but go no further to identify the real reason for less severe accidents. Today, RCA team members, including a department supervisor, a safety committee member from the same department and the involved person, conduct a thorough investigation on every accident to make sure it doesn't happen again. The result of this root cause analysis is then communicated throughout the metalcasting facility to all departments and discussed in the pre-start safety talks.

Hartman said these safety improvements have taken Lufkin from an average safety record to a good one. But there is more work to be done. One item the company is looking at for future implementation is a behavior based safety program to identify at-risk behaviors, including hazard awareness training, a behavior observation process, and training on how employees communicate and listen. A second element is a mentoring program to train short service employees, the newer employees who are traditionally more prone to sustain injuries.

"What got us to good from average is not going to get us from good to excellent," Hartman said. "There are some things we are putting into place that will move us from here into excellent."

For More Information

"Does This Man Scare You?" S. Wetzel, MODERN CASTING, October 2008, p. 20-23.

Steve Robison, American Foundry Society Technical Department, Schaumburg, Illinois 

Risk Management & Engineering for Safety

Theodore Schorn, a quality expert who has devoted his career to product quality, remembers the responsibility he felt during the years he served as plant manager of aluminum wheel casting facility Enkei Corp., Columbus, Ind. (He is currently the metalcaster's general manager of corporate quality.)

"I knew that I had a responsibility to maintain a priority on safety," he said. "Becoming a plant manager, I had accepted a responsibility, whether I knew it or not, that was of far greater importance than quality."

Most metalcasting facilities have some form of quality control program to ensure that the castings they sell meet the service requirements of their customers. Product quality systems are a form of risk management, where procedures are set up to minimize or prevent mishaps that adversely affect the casting process and final component quality. Schorn says that worker safety can be managed the same way. Both safety and quality are imperatives that can dramatically affect your costs, degrade shop morale and lead to legal compliance issues. Safety in the workplace is not just a worker attitude, it is a management responsibility that can be engineered, planned for and controlled within the workplace by using the same management tools as product quality.

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"Just as we plan for the quality of our products, safety ought to be planned and not left to chance or simply to motivational banners," Schorn said. "If we really want to improve day to day behaviors and results, a much more systematic approach has to be taken."

The typical quality management tools--planning, implementation, monitoring and review (Fig. A)--can be applied to manage worker risk, as well. Safety planning involves identifying potential hazards and behaviors to assess potential risk and developing a process to minimize or prevent the risks. This plan should involve measurable objectives and targets, clear work instructions and consistent training. As this safety plan is implemented, plant management then monitors the results using defined process metrics and audits. This management review leads to corrective action and after-action reporting. Then, the cycle repeats with implementation of the new and revised plans.

Evaluating Your Safety Climate

You can check your emphasis on safety by asking whether your production workers would agree with the following statements: My direct supervisor:

* Makes sure we receive all the safety-related equipment we need.

* Frequently checks to see if we are obeying the safety rules.

* Has discussions with workers about improving safety.

* Emphasizes safety procedures when we are working under pressure.

* Frequently tells us about the safety-related issues in our work.

* Refuses to ignore safety roles (cut corners) when work falls behind schedule.

* Is strict about working in a high-safety manner when we are tired or stressed.

* Says a "good word" to workers who pay special attention to safety.

* Is strict about working in a high-safety manner at the end of the day, when we want to go home.

* Insists we wear our safety assurance equipment even if it is unpleasant.

* Stresses that safety is above all other considerations.

* Devotes much time to safety issues during meetings.

This sidebar was adapted by Theodore Schorn, Enkei America, from "Controlling for Quality: Climate, Leadership and Behavior," Gil Luria, Quality Management Journal, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 27-40, 2008.

Table 1. Recordable Injury and Illness Cases Per 100 Workers

Industry             2003    2004   2005   2006   2007

All Manufacturing     6.8    6.6    6.3     6     5.6
Primary Metal Mfg.    9.6     10    9.1    8.6    8.1
All Metalcasting     13.1     14    13.5   11.9   11.8
Ferrous Casters      15.2    16.3   14.8   13.6    13
Iron Casters          16      17    17.1   15.1   13.6

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Table 2. Nonfatal Injury and Illness Rates

Industry (NAILS)                        2006       2007

Skiing (71392)                          13.2       16.5
Sports Teams (711211)                   12.8       6.2
Beet Sugar Refineries (311313)          11.7       13.8
Steel Casters (331513)                  12.1       13.8
Iron Casters (331511)                   15.1       13.6
Seafood Caneries (311711)               6.5        11.1
Copper Casters (331525)                  8          10
Truck/Trailer Mfg. (336212)             13.9       10.4
Iron/Steel Forging (332111)             10.9        10

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics