Safety net gains

The Canmaker
September 2008

Over the past five years, canmaker Impress has driven safety in all of its plants worldwide - and reaped a range of benefits. Daniel Searle reports

At Impress's aerosol can plant at Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, it's been well over a year since the last accident occurred. Not bad, considering it wasn't long ago that the same plant recorded over 100 separate accidents in a single year.

That was after the contents of the former US Can plant had been moved from its previous site at Southall, with loose equipment and components causing havoc at the plant - but Impress has since pushed through an improved safety record at the plant.

On the business side, the plant stemmed the outward flow of around £0.5m ($1m) paid out in compensation over the past five years, while absenteeism dropped to around 1.4 percent - just one-quarter the local area average.

And the industry has also offered its congratulations, in the form of the plant's second International Safety Award in consecutive years, and one of this year's Sword of Honour prizes, both awarded by the British Safety Council (BSC).

The plant, which produces around 200m aerosol cans annually, was the first Welsh winner of the Sword of Honour award in ten years, and one of only 40 companies worldwide recognised by the BSC with the award in 2008.

The turnaround is the result of both individuals at the plant, and also Impress's efforts to improve safety worldwide which are overseen by Group Risk & Excellence manager Ken Wood, based at Impress's headquarters in Clichy, Paris.

"Safety really took priority when Francis Labbé became chief executive [in November 2003]," says Wood. "When he started, one of the first things he did was to have made an internal behavioural safety film. This has since been translated into 14 languages and shown at our plants around the world. He also ensures a safety budget which allows us all to progress with safety improvements."

The change in attitude across the company has shown positive results - accidents have been reduced fivefold in the past five years. While the same types of injuries remain - trips, falls and cuts are most common - Impress's approach to determining the causes has changed and is starting to make a difference, says Wood:

"Nowadays, machinery is generally safe if workers follow training," he explains. "In the past five years, 95 percent of accidents have been rooted in human error or violation of training. We need to understand why employees don't follow their training - we are thus developing a form of root-cause analysis which helps us to understand the triggers and motivators to unsafe behaviour."

With the help of a consultancy with a background in industrial psychology, Wood and Impress are aiming to create a "just culture" which is helping to improve morale and in turn lower absenteeism - as highlighted at Merthyr.

"One example of this approach regards a worker who was involved in an increasing number of safety breaches," says Wood. "When the situation was investigated, he was diagnosed with the early onset of Alzheimer's disease. He was kept on at Impress at the same level, but in a position in which he was not exposed to injury risks."

Different cultures around the world require different safety models, says Wood:

"Regulatory requirements and cultural differences around the world require different approaches to safety management, so systems need to be based only on simple directives from the company."

For Wood, safety within the industry is a natural extension of the safety of metal packaging. "For example, there are fewer consumer injuries reported caused by cans than by glass packaging," he says. "Dealing with industrial safety, I'm also proud to be involved with such a safe product."

Impress
t: +33 2 4348 5100