Revolutionising Safety for Unprecedented Productivity
In an industry where high hazard environments are the norm, our clients demand nothing short of excellence in health and safety risk management. Already commended for our safety achievements with ISO 9000 accreditation, we embarked on an ambitious journey to elevate our standards by transitioning to ISO 45001. This strategic move was not just about compliance; it was about embedding a 'Safety Differently' culture into our core operational framework, integrating health and safety management with our overall business systems.
The transition to ISO 45001 catalyzed a transformation across the organisation, bolstering customer confidence, significantly increasing orders, and boosting productivity by an impressive tenfold. This evolution also streamlined our pre-qualification process for tenders, thanks to the standard's new focus on Human Factors and Worker Participation, galvanising the entire company around the shared goal of enhancing everyday work safety and efficiency.
A Leadership-Driven Learning Culture
Our Directors' unequivocal commitment to achieving ISO 45001 was a declaration of our dedication to not just maintaining, but continuously improving our safety landscape. By reviewing and integrating health and safety management into all business processes, and empowering our Quality, Audit, and Safety Manager with the insights from our facilitated Learning Teams, we embarked on a path to truly understand and refine how work is performed under normal conditions.
The journey was marked by key success factors, including engaging our entire workforce in the transition process, rewarding shop floor innovations that enhanced safety leadership, and ensuring transparent communication about health and safety performance at monthly briefings.
Tangible Safety and Business Outcomes
This initiative didn't just elevate our health and safety performance; it redefined our business model, yielding:
- Enhanced operational efficiency by reducing the administrative overhead, thereby freeing up managerial resources to focus on frontline improvements.
- A shift towards a more proactive health and safety management ethos, characterised by active manager and supervisor participation in Learning Teams.
- Improved visibility and measurement of safety performance, focusing on the efficacy of safety critical controls.
Moreover, integrating safety into our business practices significantly enhanced Mach-Tool’s market position, demonstrated by increased customer loyalty, winning orders based on superior health and safety performance, and a refined metal preparation process that not only mitigated health and safety risks but also decimated previous productivity benchmarks.
Cultivating a People-Centered Safety Culture
Our Board’s decision to adopt a People-Centered Approach, with Work Safety Hub at the helm of developing and implementing our safety management system, was transformative. It encouraged open communication and continuous safety innovation across all levels of the organisation. Our commitment to engaging every employee in the conversation about safety through initiatives like regular catch-ups, learning teams, and safety reviews has fostered an environment of continuous improvement and collective responsibility for safety.
Recognising the contributions of our workforce through an employee safety improvement award scheme has not only motivated ongoing enhancements but has also been instrumental in earning formal recognition for our health and safety achievements.
In this journey towards excellence, management's openness in health and safety matters has reinforced a culture where every team member's efforts towards a safer workplace are valued and recognised.
