Processors honored for safety programs​

Columbus, Ohio — Four plastics processors won the first Safety Best Practices Awards from the Manufacturers Association for Plastics Processors.

The winners were All-Plastics LLC, Automation Plastics Corp., Nicolet Plastics LLC, and sister companies Micro Mold Co. Inc. and Plastikos Inc.

MAPP recognized the companies at the close of the Environmental Health and Safety Summit, held in Columbus July 18-19. The summit drew 85 people.

The trade association also published a 2018 Safety Best Practices booklet that details safety measures by 20 plastics processors.

MAPP got 30 submissions for the safety awards. The MAPP staff narrowed the list down to 11, then submitted them to the association's full membership of companies, which voted to pick the winners.

All-Plastics, a custom injection molder in Kerrville, Texas, took first place. All-Plastics has a 6S safety improvement program with a measurement system that drives organizational safety practices, continuous improvement and employee awareness. Its plant is sectioned off into 10 zones to optimize workflow and efficiency. Each zone is assigned a zone leader, and they are responsible for making sure all 6S practices are followed daily.

All-Plastics provides plantwide communication about health and safety through training, visual zone boards, safety signs, committee meetings, staff meetings and the distribution of monthly narrative and matrices.

The company has an award system to recognize safety successes, with monthly catered meals for no accidents. In an employee suggestion program, winners get cash prices and recognition at the annual employee appreciation banquet.

Second place went to Automation Plastics Corp. In 2016, the custom molder in Aurora, Ohio, adopted the Dozuki platform for electronic work guidance and quality management system documentation control. Part of Dozuki is work instructions using electronic tablets at the production cell.

Automation Plastics also uses Dozuki to conduct orientation and safety training. Each employee has a Dozuki user account with customized privileges and has secure access from any device with an internet connection.

A member of the safety steering team identified an opportunity to boost the company's traditional safety walks — where two safety audit team members stop at each injection molding machine and about 20 other locations — using the Dozuki tablets. The auditors enter findings into the Dozuki.

The project is beginning to yield results. Data and statistics can be easily analyzed through both a dashboard and downloadable files. The system gives real-time presentation of audit findings. Labor savings is more than 50 percent, the company said.

Dozuki also lets the company adapt and concentrate the focus of safety audits based on recent safety incidents or on concerns identified by an analysis of the accumulating audit data.

The safety steering team meets several times a month.

Nicolet and Micro Mold/Plastikos tied for third place.

Nicolet Plastics, a custom molder in Mountain, Wis., made improvements to its safety program and company culture in 2017. The company hired a safety coordinator who works with the safety team.

A cross-functional safety team meets once a month. The team discusses accidents, near misses and safety concerns that were reported and reviews corrective actions. Team members help with safety projects, training and any plant updates that are needed.

Members of the safety team went through a 10-hour training program, which teaches workers to analyze safety-related events and drill down to the root cause, as well as how to compute the direct and indirect costs of an accident.

Also in 2017, Nicolet developed a Safety Recognition Program to encourage employees to be more proactive about their safety and that of coworkers. The two requirements are to fill out a report about a near miss or safety concern and have a corrective action. If possible, employees also take pictures to help with understanding. The safety coordinator reviews each report and follows up with the employee and supervisor. If the report meets the requirements of the program, the safety coordinator creates a safety alert that is emailed to everyone at the company. Alerts are generated for accidents as well.

Erie, Pa.-based Micro Mold and Plastikos focused on reviewing safety programs in 2017 and conducted a hazard analysis. The companies also brought in safety consultants to audit the operations.

The effort resulted in an overall reduction to the incident rate, from 3.1 in 2016 to 1.56 in 2017.

The companies had pizza parties for every 100 days with no recordable accidents. Officials also increased awareness about near misses and how important it is to report them.

All employees who are required to wear safety shoes get a $150 voucher from the company. Micro Mold and Plastikos also hold monthly safety communication meetings for all employees.

Lockout/tag-out procedures were added to each injection molding machine, and the location was made the same on each press for quick access and ease of use.