Securing Your Survival

Innovation isn’t always a good thing when it comes to plant safety. In fact it can be downright ugly. Imagine a lift truck lifting another lift truck to reach something unreachable. Klaus Ruger uses that real-life photograph to do the work of a thousand words in discussing the importance of implementing health and safety programs for employees. It made his audience both gasp and chuckle when he showed it at FEFCO’s 13th annual technical seminar held earlier this month in Nice, France. FEFCO, the European Federation of Corrugated Board Manufacturers, devoted its second morning of presentations to plant management.
Ruger, former managing director of Kappa Wellpappe Wiesloch and currently consultant of Kappa Packaging Germany, says safety needs to be a part of every executive’s mindset, not just the workers’.

He followed the lift truck picture with the sad tale of an employee of a large Frankfurt plant who spilled acid all over himself. It was up to the plant’s executive officer to explain how this person was injured. “He was not wearing a safety suit,” the executive stated. Wrong answer, says Ruger. The right answer: “I have not looked after my people so that this person would have been wearing a safety suit.”

To get anywhere close to a zero accident record, safety must be cultural in your company. Ruger says that means individual responsibility, self-coaching, and team spirit, where everyone is concerned about everyone else.

Cleanliness next to productivity—Florent Teisseire, production manager at Smurfit Socar Ouest, says cleanliness is also part of a plant’s safety culture. It is a certified process in his box plant.

“Prior to certification, we cleaned the machines whether we were on one or three shifts,” he says. “With certification, we’ve improved the cleaning process and made better use of manpower. Prior to certification, machine operators didn’t know why they had to wear white coats. With certification they do. It’s not just to clean the machines, but it’s to please the customer as well.”

Employees have a stake in cleanliness and safety. They even offer their own suggestions. Before certification, in 2003, the company’s suggestion box never contained a single card offering advice on better cleaning procedures. In 2004, 40 of the 209 suggestions it held were about cleanliness.

The cost of these cleaning procedures represents one percent of Smurfit Socar’s sales figures, Teisseire says. When you know these costs, he adds, you can better manage and improve them.

Master the learning curve—To make any safety training effective, it can’t be done in one big-bang approach, suggests Des Moore, head of the School of Business and Humanities at the Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown, Ireland. Start by addressing small gaps. Attendance alone at a training event isn’t enough. Skills need to be put into action immediately after the training session, before trainees forget what they learn – and training decay happens within 24 hours.

The long-term effects of training are important as well, suggests Bertrand Gallois, training manager for Martin Corrugated. Evaluate training’s impact three to six months afterwards. “This can be done in-house by the employees themselves,” he suggests. “They’re the ones best placed to assess the impact and effectiveness.”

It’s important that management play a preparatory role, however. They need to base the training on a situational analysis. Assess the work environment before training and tell employees on what basis they’re being measured, he suggests. In the long run this will result in less turnover, more flexible employees, better equipment performance, and better productivity.

Moore adds to Gallois’ advice to management:
“Managers can help by talking to employees and setting objectives matched to the job,” he continues. “Organize work environment teams to help ensure your plant is employing the right quality and quantity of equipment. This will build morale, as will ensuring that these teams are mutually accountable. The teams should be no larger than 15 members, otherwise they might split into factions and create a divisive work atmosphere.”

Industry cooperation—Stefano Rossi, development and manufacturing director, containerboard, SCA Packaging, Brussels, concluded this FEFCO session on plant management by explaining how standards development will make everyone involved in paperboard packaging more competitive with providers of other packaging media. He says this will happen thanks to new cooperation between FEFCO, ECO (the European Containerboard Organization), and Groupement Ondule.

This alliance is starting by establishing paper reel moisture content guidelines, but its to-do list also includes a new set of optimal properties for white top liner, a revision of lightweight grade classifications, a list of European grades produced and sold by group members, and a corrugator optimization checklist.

The alliance will provide an open forum to promote interaction among all elements of the paperboard supply chain, including starch, converting machines, winders, as well as corrugators, Rossi explained. “If we want to win against competitive materials we must improve the performance of our industry. Working together is the way forward.”OBM