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Safety—Programs & Actions
Fatality Elimination
Zero work-related injuries and illnesses has been a long-standing goal for Alcoa. We believe world-class safety performance is attainable through dedicated effort, and one of our guiding principles is that we value human life above all else and manage risk accordingly. One life lost is one too many.
Unfortunately, we experienced 36 fatalities between 2000 and 2007, including the following five in 2007:
- On Tuesday, January 2, 2007, an instrument and electrical technician at our Point Comfort Operations (Texas, USA) was contacted by hydrofluoric acid while performing regularly scheduled maintenance in the aluminum fluoride department. The employee died later that evening at a Houston hospital.
- On Sunday, January 21, 2007, a forklift operator at our Yankton Operations (South Dakota, USA) dismounted from his forklift. After taking a few steps, he slipped on the snow and ice, breaking his right leg and ankle. Surgery was performed the next day to repair the injury, and complications during or following the surgery resulted in the employee passing away on January 24, 2007.
- On Thursday, April 5, 2007, an employee of a roofing contractor at our operations in Belaya Kalitva, Russia, fell through a roof panel approximately 15 meters (47 feet) to the casthouse floor. The contractor died later that day at a Russian hospital.
- On Thursday, July 5, 2007, an employee at our Fusina, Italy, rolling mill was fatally injured when he was struck by a forklift operated by a coworker.
- On Friday, October 12, 2007, a 52-year-old electrician at our operations in Samara, Russia, was found deceased on top of a crane bridge in the extrusion plant. An autopsy confirmed electrocution to be the cause of this employee's death.
In 2008, we have experienced two fatalities: a contractor at our Belaya Kalitva operation in Russia and an employee at the Alcoa Technical Center outside of Pittsburgh.
The level of global focus and attention directed at fatality prevention continues with the objective of building a system and culture that is more robust in its ability to:
- Recognize risks and error-likely situations;
- Improve the effectiveness of pre-job briefings for high-risk tasks;
- Assess the risk for fatal or other high-potential consequences by job or task and routine or non-routine activities;
- Provide layers of protection from recognized risks;
- Stop the work when a risk is identified that cannot be eliminated or controlled;
- Apply lessons learned to predict areas of current and future vulnerability, and incorporate error-proofing;
- re-design tested and safe methods for performing job tasks;
- Improve the use of field observations on higher risk tasks as a means to monitor for potential deviations from safe and proven methods; and
- Address contractor and contracted services safety.
During 2007, we actively participated in the National Forum on Fatality Prevention in the Workplace, which was hosted by Indiana University of Pennsylvania's Safety Sciences Department. Funded by an Alcoa Foundation grant, the forum had more than 150 participants from the chemical, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and construction industries, along with a number of globally recognized consultants, research organizations, government agencies, and universities offering curriculum in the safety sciences.
The forum's objectives were to: 1) identify contributing causes and organizational weaknesses that increase the risk of fatalities; 2) identify solutions and best practices for preventing fatalities; and 3) identify areas of future safety research that would drive significant improvement in the ability to predict, focus, and intervene to interrupt the cycle of events that lead to a fatality.
In 2007, we also reviewed approximately 30 historical fatalities and other high-consequence events with the assistance of an independent third party to evaluate the systemic root causes of catastrophic incidents. Feedback from our independent review concluded that we:
- Are working on a lot of the right issues with the right focus;
- Have an avenue for candid dialogue on fatality prevention at the executive level;
- Benefit greatly from our tracking of historical major incidents data;
- Look beyond proximal causes and test for management system and cultural causal factors;
- Recognize the importance of human performance and error precursors;
- Actively communicate lessons learned; and
- Are moving toward more leading key performance indicators.
At the same time, the reviewer warned us of a subtle shift in cultural bias for production over safety (to remain globally competitive) that was occurring in some companies. To remain competitive in the global marketplace and prevent gaps from developing in our protective systems, we must continue to make available the resources needed to support safety through the application of sound engineering practices, inspection, testing, and maintenance programs, along with capital to fund projects that address risks.
We continue to test how our management systems contribute to fatalities and what predictive or leading indicators might be used to signal when we are moving closer to an at-risk condition and/or a weakness in our protective systems. We are gaining traction in our efforts to create an awareness and understanding of key drivers that increase the potential for human error as it relates to fatalities.
In August 2007, for example, our Alumar Operations in São Luís, Brazil, completed deployment of more than 6,000 hours of human performance awareness training for employees in both operational and leadership roles as part of its ongoing fatality and injury prevention efforts.
To put our fatality performance in perspective, there were 5,703 manufacturing fatalities in the United States in 2007 (Bureau of Labor Statistics data). In 2002, there were 16,170 fatalities in emerging market economies (World Bank Regions data). Annually, the International Labor Organization estimates there are more than 2 million job-related fatalities worldwide.
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Continuous Improvement Efforts
Since 2005, we have focused on simpler and more binary safety standards, the adoption of the ISO 18001/14001 management system, common information systems, and streamlined audit protocols. Increased stability, reliability, and strength of the safety system were the goals, so long-term improvements in these areas would benefit the customer, the business, and individuals working within the system.
In addition to fatality prevention, the 2008 continuous improvement plan will continue to target hand/finger and employee-new-to-the-job injuries. Employees new to the job experienced 33% of our total recordable injuries in 2007, while hand/finger injuries accounted for approximately 26%. Overall, the 2007 total recordable injury rate for employees new-to-the-job improved by 14% over 2006 results, and the hand/finger injury rate improved by 15%.
As part of our 2008 safety plan, each Alcoa business group has been challenged to analyze its injury experience and develop and implement a problem-solving and improvement plan that addresses the group's risk profile as it relates to Alcoa's injury performance. While individual business-unit risks will vary, the key corporate drivers include: employees new to the job (less than 18 months); hand/finger injuries; significant ergonomic risk; and seasonal or non-routine exposures.
Eliminating these drivers of risk will often require us to transform the tools we use and how we traditionally view a job. For example, the plate mill at our Davenport Works (Iowa, USA) had been averaging several crush-type injuries to hands and fingers annually. While operators handled suspended loads with their hands for the past 50 years, that ingrained culture began changing in 2007 through employee meetings and a program to completely eliminate operators' hands from touching suspended loads through the use of off-the-shelf and specially fabricated handling tools. The plate mill achieved 99% hands-free handling in 2007.
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Training
Three leadership EHS training sessions were conducted in the United States and one in Europe during 2007. The target audience was business unit leaders who were new to Alcoa or new to a senior leadership role in an Alcoa business unit. A total of 95 business leaders attended the training.
In addition, we delivered 24 safety and health skill-builders in 2007 to ensure that business unit and location professionals had the knowledge and skills necessary to support the EHS program needs. More than 300 attendees participated in these sessions, and over 500 hours of instructor class time was invested in advancing the capabilities of our in-house safety and health resources.
In addition to traditional classroom instruction, we completed 128 web-based broadcast sessions totaling more than 500 instructor contact hours in 2007. Attendance included 1,218 location-level registrations that varied from one to 20 participants per location.
Alcoa Business System Implementation
The introduction of human performance concepts is just one example where the safety system is moving toward working in concert within the Alcoa Business System (ABS) framework, particularly the people component, to target non-conforming materials, products, equipment, and work practices, as well as accidents and waste. As we shift our safety focus to analyze work activities associated with a particular person, task, and time, we will be making error precursors and triggers more visible. Once visible, errors can be predicted, managed, and prevented through standardized work and built-in tests for validating safe work practices at the activity level.
Creating a clearer connection with ABS also includes the following:
- Applying total productive maintenance principles so that equipment failures with the potential to cause harm are anticipated and eliminated;
- Applying ergonomic principles to improve the flow of work, the demands of the task, and the fit between tools, equipment, materials, and the person;
- Promoting a just and fair culture that supports respect for and encourages employee engagement; and
- Supporting analysis to cause and problem solving.
For example, a revised new-to-job process provided much better results for Alcoa's Global Hard Alloy Extrusion business in 2007. The business used ABS problem solving and a standardized approach to define very specific actions tied directly to where opportunities for improvement existed. Results were monitored monthly to validate the actions and progress. Most important, the plant managers provided the sponsorship to ensure the identified changes were incorporated and institutionalized. As a result, the business unit's new-to-job injury rate declined from 1.61 in 2006 to 0.95 in 2007—a 41% improvement.
Efficiency and Effectiveness Program
We are continually looking to improve our safety system efficiency by streamlining the many information systems used to accumulate, analyze, and report safety-related information. This enables skilled people to focus on more value-added work, such as risk assessment and root-cause analysis.
In 2008 and 2009, we will be working with a leading vendor of EHS software to implement an advanced standardized reporting and data information system that also integrates centralized task management, data analysis, compliance, and other management tools. The long-term benefits of a standardized system are the simplification and integration of EHS processes and data to meet growing global reporting, EHS compliance, and performance management requirements.
We also seek to reduce our safety costs while maintaining or enhancing our safety performance. In partnership with our procurement group, for example, we focused on strategic sourcing for safety supplies and services based on total-cost-of-ownership strategies and global leveraging. Much of our focus during 2007 centered on capturing approximately US$2.6 million in savings for flame-retardant clothing.
Another example of improved efficiency can be found in the more timely delivery and cost savings associated with our global EHS training efforts. Regional skill-builders and web-cast delivery of select EHS training topics resulted in approximately US$1 million in EHS cost avoidance during 2007.
Additional options to promote sustainable resources and reduce costs are ongoing. Some examples include recycling ear plugs and eyewear, eliminating unnecessary packaging, and evaluating bulk containers for reuse. Two of our locations—Torrance and Fullerton in California (USA)—have achieved 100% elimination of inside forklift use. In addition to improving pedestrian safety in the plants, this initiative reduced capital investment and maintenance costs and improved the plants' manufacturing flow.
Key Performance Indicators
In addition to fatality elimination, our safety strategy, targets, and objectives continue to be focused on improving our performance in the following key metrics.
- Incident Frequency Rates
- Lost Workday (LWD) Incident Rates: These rates most often represent temporary or permanently disabling incidents that impact the long-term health and welfare of our employees and contractors.
- Total Recordable Incident (TRI) Rates: These are the more frequent and visual reminders of gaps that remain in critical areas, such as ergonomics, noise, and hand/finger injuries, that most frequently stand in the way of Alcoa locations achieving an injury- and illness-free workplace. These incidents include those resulting in lost time or restricted work activity, as well as those that require medical treatment.
- Employee New-to-the-Job Incident Rates: Work conducted by Alcoa's Yale Partnership has documented an association between time in a job and injury rates. The study revealed that injury rates for employees new to a job, irrespective of actual company tenure, was approximately 12 times higher for employees with one year or less in their current position compared to all other employees. Since this type of incident has traditionally accounted for approximately 30% of all occupational injuries annually, it has become a critical focus area for targeted intervention and improvement in our protective systems.
- Major Incident Profile: While major incidents may not lead to an injury or illness, they have the potential to result in a fatality, a permanent or temporarily disabling injury, severe property damage, or a risk to the surrounding community. Tracking and profiling our major incidents provide us with valuable information to solve non-catastrophic incidents to cause and apply the lessons learned to prevent similar or repeat events with perhaps more significant consequences in the future.
- Injury-Free Event Profile: Similar to major incidents, these are incidents that do not lead to an injury or illness but have the potential to do so. Encouraging injury-free event reporting raises the level of employee engagement in safety and health and promotes proactive risk recognition and response. Often the lessons learned while investigating these minor incidents highlight a potential that otherwise would remain undetected as a latent condition or error-likely situation.
- Safety Engagement Profile: Safety research suggests that one of most important leading indicators of sustaining organizational change in safety is the level of employee involvement and engagement. Some of our proactive means for promoting employee engagement include: safety suggestions; single-point accountable roles for a specific focus area of the safety system; and participation on safety problem-solving teams, pre-job briefings, toolbox meetings, incident investigations, safety committees, and incident investigations.
- Overtime Profile: The Yale Partnership study also documented an association between injuries and extended work hours. The risk of injury increases significantly after 16 consecutive work hours. An increase in injury risk was also observed when more that 64 hours were worked in seven consecutive days. As a result, we have implemented overtime caps of 16 hours per day and 64 hours per week (66 hours for employees working 12-hour shifts) and require waivers with location manager approval. Trends in overtime and waivers are reviewed by the Alcoa Executive Council quarterly to track and evaluate system stability and potential for at-risk situations.
- Mobile Equipment Profile: In plants, free-moving mobile equipment represents the most significant fatality risk in Alcoa. In particular, the vehicle-pedestrian interface represents the most frequent type of mobile equipment exposure of concern. Our Engineered Products and Solutions (EPS) group took the most basic safety approach with regard to this potential-eliminate the risk rather than manage it. Since 2006, the six businesses within EPS have eliminated an average of 25% of forklifts used inside their plants, with the two California facilities mentioned above achieving 100% elimination. Other Alcoa entities have adopted the same challenge and will target a 25% reduction in their mobile equipment profile during 2008.
As of December 31, 2007, 158 people missed one or more days of work due to a work-related injury or illness. Total recordable injuries stood at 1,793. By comparison, we logged 147 LWD cases and 1,857 TRI cases in 2006-updated numbers from our 2006 reporting to reflect lost time and restricted medical treatment that occurred in 2007 for injuries received in 2006. As of 2008, we are reporting rolling LWD and TRI rates to more accurately reflect lost time and restricted or medical treatment that occurs in a subsequent year but is recorded against the initial injury date and year.
The leading major-incident categories reported for the 2007 injuries included free-moving mobile equipment, electric overhead crane, and different-level falls-all three of which remain major focus areas in our fatality prevention effort.
Progress toward our goal of zero lost workday incidents remained relatively flat during 2007, and we ended the year with an LWD incident rate of 0.12 and a TRI rate of 1.35. However, this incident experience represents an 84% reduction in the LWD incident rate and a 73% reduction in the TRI rate over our performance a little more than a decade earlier (1994).
As of the end of 2007, 80% of our 316 safety reporting units worldwide had worked 12 consecutive months without an LWD incident, and 47% reported working without a TRI. While this performance is certainly noteworthy, it was marred by the disappointment and tragedy associated with four employee fatalities and one contractor death during the year.
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Case Studies
100% Crew-Led Kaizen Event Eliminates Fatality Risks
An Evolving World-Class Safety Culture in Iceland
Instilling a Zero Injury and Illness Culture
New Incident Investigation Technique Results in Safety Improvement
Union, Management Jointly Work to Decrease Injuries
Suggestion Systems Reduce Costs, Improve EHS, Engage Employees
Integrating Alcoa's EHS Standards, Culture into New China Facilities
Focus on Safety, Local Economy Brings Benefits to Jamaican Community
Strengthening the Safety Culture
High-, Low-Technology Segregates Pedestrians, Mobile Equipment
Focus on Key Injury Factors Reaps Double-Digit Improvements
Taking Fatality Prevention Wider, Deeper
Alcoa Helps Deliver EHS Improvement in Romania
Brazil Expansion Project Achieved with Zero Lost Workdays, Low Recordable Rate
Bringing EHS, Sustainability Awareness to the Community
Continuous Safety Improvement Nets Injury Reductions, Recognition
Dross Processing System Provides Safety, Cost, Environmental Benefits
Keeping Schoolchildren Safe and Healthy in Guinea
Primary Focus on Safety Nets Significant Improvements
Serving as an EHS Benchmark
Structured Approach to Attaining EHS Goals
Vegetation Management Plan Reduces Risks, Increases Biodiversity
Safe and Healthy Australian Children
Programs Focus on Safe Behavior
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