REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. – Updated training requirements and improved safety oversight measures implemented over the past few years are making safety management personnel across the Army Materiel Command enterprise better, according to AMC commanders and safety leaders.
AMC leaders held a Command Safety and Occupational Health Advisory Council meeting on Feb. 6, where Lt. Gen. Chris Mohan, AMC’s deputy commanding general, heard from major subordinate command leaders about safety mitigation efforts happening across the AMC enterprise, the results they’re seeing and the way forward.
AMC Safety Director Bill Zaharis said that several years ago the Army was experiencing workplace mishaps that have now decreased due to the quality of its safety managers.
“We’ve made significant progress in having very professional safety managers to advise our commanders,” he said. “That is both keeping our mishaps rates low and helping move our major safety initiatives forward.”
Additional training has especially been required as the Army’s modernization initiatives have reinvigorated the need for retrofitting older machines and processes to make sure they are compliant. Machine operators and supervisors are regularly retrained on the new requirements.
Real-time events are affecting AMC’s safety statistics, too. Commanders said they have seen a slight uptick in total mishap cases as employees return to the workplace after the pandemic, although most are fortunately not serious accidents. There has also been a slight decrease in lost-time incident rates.
The safety division is also tracking an increasing workload at Organic Industrial Base facilities in support of operations in Europe, and commanders and safety personnel are meeting regularly to intently consider the best way forward as the workload persists.
Zaharis said the current quality of the safety personnel and continual interaction and meetings at all levels keeps the enterprise in synch and without issues.
“We have made it as flexible as possible for our commands, because of how diverse we are, and we work hard to make it as achievable as possible with excellent execution,” he said. “By getting our people trained, and by interfacing with folks up and down the chain, we’ve made significant progress that way.”
An upcoming Army safety initiative is to eventually link worker’s compensation with the Department of Labor through the Employee’s Compensation Operations & Management Portal tool, which would give all levels of a command chain greater visibility of mishap reporting processes, more information on how mishaps happen, and supervisors will be more involved in the process.
Mohan believes having a more detailed scope of knowledge on mishap reporting and safety requirements across all commands will make a powerful difference.
“Safety is about doing the routine things routinely and mitigating risks as they come up,” Mohan said.
As a testament to AMC’s commitment to safety across the board, the command earned multiple 2022 Army Safety Awards:
• Exceptional Organization Safety Award – 2 Star Commands: Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command
• Exceptional Organization Safety Award – Brigade Level: 406th Army Field Support Brigade
• Exceptional Organization Safety Award – Battalion Level: U.S. Army Medical Materiel Center - Korea
• Exceptional Organization Safety Award – Garrison: USAG Fort Hood
• Industrial Operations Safety Award – Sierra Army Depot
• Excellence in Explosives Safety Award – Holston Army Ammunition Plant
• Individual Award for excellence in Safety – Noncommissioned Officer: SSG Tamra M. Jenkins
• Individual Award for Excellence in Safety – Junior Dept. of the Army Civilian: Mr. Robin LaCalle
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