At a handful of Goodyear factories around the world, one day each year is reserved for family members to come to work with their loved ones.
This isn’t your typical, take-your-family-to-work-and-show-them-what-you-do type of day, though. Instead, as the workers punch the clock to start their shift, the husbands and wives and kids of those workers tell them to be careful, be safe.
The thought behind the event, says Mike Porter, (pictured at left) Goodyear’s director of environmental, health and safety compliance, is that there is no greater safety reminder than an employee recognizing the fact there are people waiting on him or her to come home.
It’s one way the company has gotten its employees to start thinking safety, from the moment they clock in until they leave at the end of their shift.
That shift in mentality is one reason Goodyear has reduced employee injuries in its plants around the world, from 1,755 in 2004 to 695 in 2010.
“It’s the little things that are important,” Porter says. “It demonstrates the culture change. We’re getting families involved, and that’s part of a systematic approach to safety.”
The push for employee safety began in 2005. In the previous year, Goodyear had an Occupational Safety and Health Administration total injury rate of 3.7 (number of injuries per 100 employees). In 2004, the rubber industry’s rate was 8.4, and though Goodyear’s numbers were good for the industry, Porter says, it wasn’t good enough.
“Sometimes it’s OK to be good in the sector,” he says, “but if the industry is not good compared to other industries, that’s not OK.”
As a result, Goodyear started its No One Gets Hurt campaign. The goal is to get the company’s injury accident rate below 1.0. In 2010, that number was 1.56.
“We’re by no means pleased,” Porter says. “We still have not achieved our target. When we get to that 1.0, our vision is still that no one gets hurt. We’re already working on plans for sustaining and further improving our performance once we get to 1.0.”
The most common injuries in Goodyear factories are sprains and strains associated with lifting and moving tires. Cuts and lacerations are also common. Part of No One Gets Hurt focuses on workplace ergonomics to help reduce those types of injuries.
Goodyear partnered with Humantech, a Michigan-based company that specializes in ergonomics, to conduct risk assessments of the company’s factories.
Goodyear, which employs 72,000 people worldwide and had $18.8 billion in revenue in 2010, invested in work-station modifications so employees wouldn’t have to handle tires as frequently. For instance, the company added automatic feed systems to tire machines so tire builders wouldn’t have to pick up rubber pieces and load them into the machine. They also worked to eliminate the need for employees to use knives, which are typically used to cut rubber. When that was impossible, Goodyear implemented safer, cut-resistant gloves.
Ultimately, though, this shift was as much cultural as anything else. That’s why families are brought in to some of the factories — a project that is growing — and why the company is stepping up behavior training through programs such as Target Zero.
The near-miss program relies on employees to share improvements and changes to make factory floors safer. For instance, employees might point out cables as a tripping hazard or congestion at an elevator causing employees to step into the path of forklifts.
Hourly employees started buying into the safety awareness programs once they began seeing their suggestions addressed, says Warren Rasmussen, an electrician and the co-chair of the safety committee at Goodyear’s Akron Innovation Center. Rasmussen spends about half of his days on the factory floor working on safety issues with employees.
“Once we got the buy-in from the hourly people, where they’re thinking safety when they’re doing their job, that was critical to making any of this stuff work,” Rasmussen says.
As Goodyear inches closer to its goal, the company is looking at employee wellness initiatives as part of its safety campaign.
“We think that if an individual is interested in their own personal health and well-being, they will take less risk,” Porter says.
That, ultimately, is what No One Gets Hurt depends on: a work force that understands when injuries might happen and the desire to not let them happen.
“This is where we are getting now,” Porter says. “Everyone is talking and leading safety, from the tire builder on the floor to the chairman of the company.”