VSSMs aid ANAD shop safety

By Jennifer BacchusDecember 14, 2017

VSSMs aid ANAD shop safety
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

ANNISTON ARMY DEPOT, Ala. -- With its limited staff, Anniston Army Depot's Safety Office doesn't have the capacity to assist with every shop's weekly and monthly inspections.

However, a program initiated at the beginning of fiscal year 2017 is providing that much-needed capacity in the form of Value Stream Safety Monitors.

The idea arose from a Safety Office trip to Red River Army Depot.

There, Safety Office employees realized production supervisors could be uniquely qualified to assist with safety walk-throughs in their former work areas.

"The VSSMs are basically one-on-one support for the supervisors," said John Rogers, a safety engineer at ANAD.

Five supervisors were chosen by the Production Optimization Managers for the four production value streams - Weapons and Components, Powertrain, Manufacturing and Tracked Systems.

Tracked Systems, the largest of the four, has two VSSMs to handle the workload.

Steve Pennington, POM for the Powertrain Value Stream said the VSSMs are instrumental in overseeing safety operations.

"They have time to get into the shops and every area to look at production through a fresh set of eyes," he said. "They identified a lot of depot-made tools without engineering drawings being used by employees, which enabled us to ensure the proper tools, with engineering specifications, could be created."

These safety monitors were vital to ANAD's change from material safety data sheets to the new safety data sheet system. Knowing the processes in the shops, they assisted supervisors in determining exactly which chemicals were being used.

"Coming from the Manufacturing Division as a supervisor, I'm more familiar with manufacturing processes and how to relate them to safety concepts," said Marcus Staples, one of the VSSMs.

These safety monitors are now an extra set of eyes and ears in the shops every day. Since they know what right looks like on the production floor, they can easily tell when safe practices are not in place.

"They have knowledge from the supervisor's standpoint and all have experience in the shops and in their individual areas," said Rogers.

To assist with their duties, the VSSMs have received additional safety training, enabling them to see and understand things from a safety perspective they may have missed as a supervisor.

"We had blinders on. As supervisors, we were focused on production and quality," said Doug Turner, a VSSM.

They are sharing that knowledge throughout the shops.

"We are educating the employees on the floor all the way up to the POMs, teaching them where we need to be safety-wise," said Turner.

Their efforts are paying off.

In FY17, injuries dropped to 10 percent from 20 percent in FY16.

"I've seen a big difference in forklift drivers especially," said James White, a VSSM, noting an issue last year with seat belts being worn. "I'd say a vast majority of the forklift drivers now wear their seat belts."

Occasions when an accident was narrowly avoided, known as a near miss by the Safety Office, were reported more frequently - 40 were reported in FY17 compared to one or two in previous years.

Though that may sound like a negative statistic, according to Drew Ramsey, chief of the Safety Office, the numbers indicate a change in safety culture.

Now, instead of ignoring an occasion when an accident was avoided, it's being reported. This enables the safety monitors, supervisors and Safety Office to ensure an actual accident doesn't eventually occur.

The Safety Office has also begun to incorporate the VSSMs in accident investigation. Their expertise is invaluable to understanding the underlying issues of an accident and helping determine the best way to avoid that type of accident in the future.

"We are the middle people between Safety and DP," said Michaela Haynes, one of the VSSMs.

The latest training being presented to the VSSMs is on Lean, as the Safety Office plans to be a more integral part of all Lean events in the future - ensuring the process finds and corrects all safety issues in the area of the Lean event.