Impress Has Health & Safety in the Can

Safety Management
June 2008

Impress Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales is part of the worldwide metal packaging manufacturer Impress Group. The group produces steel cans for a huge range of everyday consumer goods - from soups to baked beans and hairsprays to paints. Joanna Gurman met the site's Health and Safety Co-ordinator and Plant Manager to find out how they keep everyone safe at work.

If you look around your house or place of work, it is probable you will find an aerosol can made by Impress Merthyr Tydfil. With brands including WD40, Airwick, Mr Sheen and Tresemme, the site is one of nine aerosol plants within the Impress Specialities division and is a major supplier of aerosols in the UK.

On 6 April this year, Impress Merthyr Tydfil achieved the milestone of 365 days without a lost-time accident, a great feat for a company running a complex manufacturing process. Unlike the HSE's rule of three days, the definition of a lost time accident at Impress is half a shift, making the company's safety achievements even more impressive.

There were 14 lost time accidents at the Merthyr site in 2004. This fell to eight in 2005, two in 2006 and was sustained at two in 2007. One of the accidents in 2006 happened when a worker cut his hand on a machine. Health and Safety Co-ordinator for Impress Merthyr, John O'Malley explained: "There was a sign saying wear your gloves, the machine had a lock-off system and the worker had signed the form to say he was trained - we did everything we possibly could to make the machine safe.

"However, his manager was stood near him when he opened up the machine with only cotton gloves on and the metal sliced right the way through his hand. So we have to get it through to managers that they cannot accept non-compliance with safety."

Building a Culture
Merthyr Tydfil became part of the Impress Group in September 2006 when the parent company bought the plant from the previous owners, the United States Can Company. The Impress Group has 59 facilities in 21 countries and there are two other plants in the UK - Norwich, which manufactures cans for paint and coatings, and Sutton, which is part of the food division.

Impress Merthyr Tydfil is the only site in the Impress Group that is a member of the British Safety Council, joining in July 2002. However, John says the company was in no position at the time of joining to undergo the BSC's Five Star Health and Safety Management Audit. "Our culture has changed immensely since being taken over by Impress," he explains. "We were formerly part of an American company and it didn't really take safety that seriously. Now we're part of a Dutch multinational company and safety is the number one priority within the group, to such an extent that the CEO made a safety DVD that everybody in the entire group has had to watch - around 8,000 people."

New Ideas
John and his team were already on the path to improving safety at the site before Impress took over, but he says the change of ownership opened their eyes to other possibilities. "We'd always done things a certain way but because we became a different company, it was easier to change and conform to new perceptions and ideas.

"With USC, safety stayed on site and it never went further than that. If we have a lost time accident now, there is an Impress database onto which you have to report the accident within 24 hours and it gets emailed to the CEO of the group. That really motivates us because the last thing we want is the Chief Executive of the whole company asking questions about why it happened."

Impress Merthyr employees 167 staff and around 120 of whom work on the production, manufacturing the actual cans. One of the main hazards these staff face on a daily basis is the risk posed by manual handling tasks. "We have a big weight issue because the steel is very heavy and when you pick it up off the floor, you are massively increasing your risk," says John. "It can also be very sharp and you need to be wearing the right PPE, otherwise you can be badly cut."

Important Issue
As you would expect at a large manufacturing plant, another important safety issue is the machines themselves. As part of the firm's safety procedures, all of the machines are checked for faults at the start of every shift. Plant Manager Paul Fox says: "We used to do safety checks on a daily basis and the first shift on did the checks. However, some time ago we had an incident where we were 100 per cent certain that someone had overridden a machine and a worker nearly lost his finger. We couldn't prove who was responsible as there were three shifts running that day, so we increased the safety checks from a daily basis to a shift basis."

Paul adds: "In that incident we know that the team concerned was chasing the production record and that the individual who tampered with the guard was doing what he thought was best.

''But the fact is he didn't see the risk and someone nearly lost their finger because of it. Because we didn't have those checks in place on a shift basis, we couldn't prove who had overridden the lock-out device, otherwise disciplinary action would have been taken."

The worker who cut his finger took a picture of the injury, which Paul put up on the notice board for others to see. "When the safety officer from our Norwich plant came to see us, he couldn't believe we had it up on the wall but it had an impact on the staff," says Paul.

In-House Campaign
To reduce the risk of manual handling injuries and raise awareness of other safety issues at the plant, Impress Merthyr has developed an in-house H&S campaign based on its own 'Can Man' character. John explains: "We've developed this character and he's going to be our best practice model. The idea will be wherever you see the Can Man, whatever he is doing is what you should be doing."

He adds: "We got the Impress catalogue out and picked out all the different types of can that the group make and we assembled him from it.

''It's a bit like the children's game 'Simon Says' - 'the Can Man says wear your safety glasses'; 'the Can Man says wear your seatbelt when driving'. So we're putting up Can Man posters showing what people should be doing."

Three Strikes
To ensure that PPE is worn whenever necessary, the safety team has brought in a three strikes system. "If someone catches someone else not wearing their PPE they get a strike on the board," explains Paul. "If you're on the board three times then you're called in for a meeting. Another three times and you're given a warning, another three times and you're given a final warning, then after that, possible dismissal."

The system has been in place for about two years and has been very successful. "We have never actually had to discipline anybody because of it," adds Paul. "Once people get to two, it focuses their mind."

When looking into the enforcement of PPE, Paul found that in a number of cases, it was the managers who were ignoring safe working procedures as much as anybody else by not making workers wear their PPE.

"Now if I find a guy on a sander without his glasses on, not only does he get a strike, his supervisor gets a strike and his manager gets a strike,'' Paul explains. ''So it's become a cascading strike system that says 'you as a manager are not doing your job and you as a supervisor are not doing your job' and it has worked very well."

Paul believes the system has become one of the lynchpins behind the culture change at Impress Merthyr and is about observation, feedback and enforcement.

Close Attention
With so much raw metal and finished products coming in and out of the site on lorries and lift trucks, Impress also needs to pay close attention to workplace transport. As part of this, the company is setting up a one-way traffic management system in its dispatch area and is looking at the feasibility of bringing it in right across the plant. The safe operation of lift trucks is an important issue and the wearing of seatbelts has now been added to the three strikes system.

Paul adds: "Over the next three months we aim to bring in a route system for fork-lift trucks so that they follow a set route around the factory and at set times as well, like a bus route."

Last year, every employee at Merthyr sat the BSC's Level 1 Certificate in Health and Safety at Work. John says: "We also had some visitors take the exam including the Head of safety for the entire Group, the Head of safety for our division and the Head of safety for the food division. In total over 200 people took the exam and we achieved a 100 per cent pass rate."

Impress Merthyr Tydfil won the BSC's International Safety Award for the first time in 2007, which raised its profile within the group because it had only been part of Impress for six months. John says: "We became a focus of the safety groups within Impress and we pushed on to achieve five stars in the BSC's health and safety audit in July of last year."

Six weeks later, the plant won a prestigious BSC Sword of Honour. "Originally we had planned to put some systems in place once we had achieved five stars with the aim of winning the Sword after three years," explains John. "However, we still decided to apply for the Sword and we thought we would get a report back highlighting our weaknesses, which we could overcome for the next year.

"It was a big shock to win it first time around so soon after getting five stars for the first time."

Impress Merthyr recently heard that it has won another International Safety Award this year and John hopes to retain five stars too when the plant undergoes its annual BSC audit in July.

Robust Culture
The Impress Group recently launched a Behavioural Safety programme and Impress Merthyr Tydfil was chosen as the pilot plant for the initiative because it was seen to have the most robust safety culture.

"I think a lot of the other plants are a bit jealous because they have been with Impress for much longer and they weren't considered for the pilot scheme," says John. "Safety is such a big part of our culture and it's great to see that being acknowledged and nice that we are being rewarded by the group for our achievements."

Paul adds: "Our last four lost time accidents over the past four years have been down to behaviour - things like not wearing gloves, overriding guards, things that we have policies and procedures in place for, which people don't follow.

"It's so frustrating to find that kind of behaviour, not just from individual staff but from managers as well."
As part of the new behavioural safety programme, everyone will attend a two hour awareness session on safe behaviours, and it will focus on the specific responsibilities of management, supervisors, observers and those on the shop floor. John and Paul are always striving for continual improvement at Impress Merthyr and they believe the company is on the right track to a safe and healthy working environment.

"We feel the more training we give our workforce, the better off they'll be and the company will be," says John. "We've spent a lot of money and time but we feel the benefits are significant. Three or four years ago we were spending an awful lot of money on claims but if you don't have accidents you don't get claims."

He adds: "We believe that in order to change a culture you have to educate people so they understand what you're trying to do - not just hit them over the head and say 'you WILL do this' - but show them the reason why they need to do something and what the consequences will be."

In the past year, Impress Merthyr has also reduced its carbon footprint by 26 per cent, through measures such as compacting metal waste on-site, which reduces the need to transport it. The plant is now considering undergoing the BSC's Five Star Environmental Audit to measure its environmental improvements and hopes to equal the success achieved in the safety audit.

Zero accidents
John and Paul's immediate plans include maintaining the company's success in achieving all the BSC awards, but to do this they know they have to continue to work hard to maintain good health and safety practices.

John concludes: "We've got a lot of ideas that we want to push on but our priority is zero accidents. We want safe working procedures to be second nature to the workers, like putting on a seatbelt in a car.

''We're not there yet but that is what we're aiming for."

Impress
t: +33 2 4348 5100