Sapa Safety Day !!!

A ribbon cutting by the Monett Chamber of Commerce during Safety Day at the SAPA aluminum factory in Monett took place last week. Plant manager Steve Reid, center, cut the ribbon.

The use of annual safety days has increased exponentially over the past number of years. Some companies have even expanded the concept of a annual safety day to a safety week (shout out to Alba in the Middle East!) More and more companies now realize the importance of taking one day to emphasize the continued importance of safety at their location(s). The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has a recent story of one individual plant who had their annual safety day.

Aluminum manufacturer SAPA, the new company that formed last year, celebrated Safety Day for the first time in Monett on Thursday. Monett on Thursday, October 2, 2014.

Company officials made presentations, led activities and hosted a lunch for the employees. SAPA formed out of a merger with Hydro Aluminum, the previous owner of what had been the Wells Aluminum plant in Monett, and Orkla. The new company, with 23,000 employees in more than 40 countries, finalized its organization in September 2013. Its headquarters are in Oslo, Norway.

"This is a day to step back, focus on safety and see how important safety is to us as a company and as individuals," said Ryan Nall, environmental health and safety manager for the Monett plant.

"We're trying to start a new tradition with SAPA," said Steve Reid, plant manager. In past years, Reid recalled the main emphasis was on production, and it was not uncommon to have 8-14 reported incidents involving injuries a year. Reid was involved in two incidents, one where he was hurt. The Monett plant has had one reportable incident in the past two years.

Charles Carter, human resources lead person for SAPA's Midwest region, came to Monett for the occasion. In the region, Carter said SAPA has only one other casting facility, in Yankton, S.D. Three plants in Indiana, in Connersville, Elkhart and North Liberty, all concentrate on extrusion.

"This plant is very unique," Conner said. "There are good people who have worked here for some time, several for 25 to 30 years. They've done an excellent job keeping the casting facility right in step with other locations.

"We're switching from the Hydro legacy to SAPA, and they have represented SAPA very well."

Jeff Meredith, executive director of the Monett Chamber of Commerce, spoke during the luncheon about the importance of safety in keeping Monett operating as an industrial center. The combined workforce more the $250 million in income and benefits paid to employees a year and multiple billions of dollars in goods and services.

According to Chamber studies, 60 percent of Monett workers live outside the city limits. Meredith said people would not be willing to drive to work if they felt in danger of losing an arm or not going home again.

"If not for you all being safe, we'd not have these jobs," Meredith said. "You are the driving force that makes Monett grow. Safety: It's the right thing to do."

Winners of the various contests received $50 gift cards. Games and winners were: blackjack, John Garrett; chip and putt, Kevin Hilton; basketball shoot, Jared Holt; beanbag toss, Charlie Weston; and forklift challenge, Jim Holland.

In the drawings held after lunch, Travis Heseman won the grill. Kyle Willkins won the generator.

Congratulations to the employees at Sapa Monett for taking time away from their jobs to be reinvigorated on why safety is important to Sapa. On Thursday, October 2 the Aluminium Plant Safety Blog was invited to attend Sapa’s largest facility in Cressona, Pennsylvania in the USA. Throughout the Sapa network of over 100 facilities annual Safety Day took place too on. The safety program at Sapa Cressona mirrored Sapa Monett’s in many ways. Sapa Cressona had several safety games (exercises) focused on teamwork, hazards, and safety. One of the team building exercises required a team of five individuals to move a marble (yes a marble) through a series of individual plastic pipes in a straight line over fixed distance of approximately 10 meters. The fastest team won a sizeable cash prize. Another exercise involved a team of two individuals. One individual was blind folded while the other was instructed to verbally guide their sight impaired through a maze. On the ground the maze had areas that if stepped upon would result in a time penalty. The quickest team won. Both exercises emphasized the importance of teamwork. Teamwork plays an important role in the overall safety of a plant. The best plants in terms of safety are the plants where the workers look out for each other. They are not afraid to tell someone that what they are doing is unsafe. Just imagine how many injuries could have been prevented and lives saved if someone told the worker before the upcoming incident that they were working in an unsafe manner. Just imagine.

Hopefully the reader will take the initiative and speak out when it necessary to correct an unsafe work manner that is observed. If you don’t and an incident does occur, you may be haunted with the thought of “what if I had spoken up”… There might be a reader who is shy, scared, and would feel uncomfortable telling someone that what they are/were doing is unsafe. The APSB can relate to your feelings. But, sometimes, just sometimes it is worth stepping out of your shell to speak up. Even if that person is your superior. You have to be polite and respectful. Simply explain what you observed and you are concerned about their safety. You can do it.

Back to teamwork. Teammwork when encouraged can have positive results. In every team athletic competition there is always a captain or individual whom leads the other teammates toward their goal. The goal for our industry is zero incidents. One executive recently told the APSB, the goal is simple for every worker to go home with everything they brought to work. The captain of an aluminium company is the chief executive. No matter how good the plant manager and safety manager are, without the active support of the chief executive zero accidents is a finish line that keeps moving farther away. No finer examples of chief executives who actively support and champion safety within their companies than the leaders of the various large and small aluminium companies in our industry.

These individuals each have taken their own unique approach to safety within their own company. Not only have their workers benefited, but so have our industry. The Aluminium International Today has just begun a biannual feature with interviews of chief executives on safety related topics. The first interview is with Sapa Group’s Svein Tore Holsether.  Here is the link to the interview (here).

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