Fort Rucker, Ala. (Dec. 8, 2011)--If a company uses more than 200 different trucking and harvesting contractors operating more than 700 trucks and machines across a five-state region, how safely they operate those big rigs is a major concern.
Weyerhaeuser Corporation's Southern Woodlands Division knows that getting their product from the woods to the sawmill safely is critical to their company's success and they reached out to the U.S. Army Combat Readiness/Safety Center at Fort Rucker, Ala., for insights and advice on operational safety.
"This is a two-way meeting," said Jim Yonts, executive director, Support Operations, USACR/Safety Center. "We'll explain the Army Safety program and also learn how Weyerhaeuser conducts their safety program. We can both learn something."
He explained how, over the past 10 years, the number of accidental fatalities in the Army had dropped from a high of 299 in 2005 to 176 in 2011 and how some of the Army programs may help the lumber company.
Weyerhaeuser wanted to determine if their existing safety program could benefit from the Army Safety Program. The company's Southern Woodlands Division manages approximately 4 million acres of timber and modern forestry practices bring a stand of timber from planting to market in 25-27 years, where it would need approximately 50 years to accomplish the same thing naturally.
"We use satellite imagery now to determine if a stand of timber needs fertilizer, but in the old days we would just fertilize on a regular basis," said Matt Williams, Weyerhaeuser's Southern Timberlands safety lead. "We use Global Positioning Systems data to track the coverage of what we do apply to the timberland.
High-tech forestry practices mean maximum, sustainable use of the land, but transportation activities provide the most safety incidents in Weyerhaeuser's operations. These include drivers during 'nondriving activities' such as working to secure a load on their vehicle.
"We see slip, trip and fall injuries and injuries from working outside in the elements," Williams said. "We know that creating and maintaining a culture of safety is the long-term answer to keeping our workers safe."
Other Weyerhaeuser managers at the meeting agreed.
"Changing the existing culture is a challenge for both Weyerhaeuser and the Army," said Andres Villegas, Weyerhaeuser's North Carolina transportation manager. "Truckers and loggers may treat safety just like their grandfather did, and it's tough for us to influence a change in that culture."
Indiscipline is a major safety issue, according to Lt. Col. Scott Wile, director, Driving Directorate, USACR/Safety Center. Army-trained Soldiers may not always follow the rules, leading to preventable accidents, he said.
"To reach a solution, you have to look at the details of an accident," Wile added. "In your case, you must make sure your safety messages get down to your truck drivers and create a culture that sees safety as a way of doing business and a way of life. Following an accident, separate the victims and those who are at-fault in an accident and focus on the at-faults."
Wile, along with other USACR/Safety Center briefers at the Outreach event, discussed how Army safety programs might be tailored to Weyerhaeuser's needs. Content available at https//:safety.army.mil is open source and is available to anyone.
"Tie your resources into your problems," added Jon Blake, director, Plans and Programs, Current Operations, USACR/Safety Center.
He addressed climate and culture change issues in the safety world, and demonstrated the Army Readiness Assessment Program as an example of how to assess the safety culture within an organization.
While culture change is an issue, safety issues are also the result of human actions.
"Safety problems could be the human element of pressures to cut corners to get the job done," said Dr. Pat LeDuc, director, Human Factors Directorate, Future Operations, USACR/Safety Center. "Investigate those problems and work on the climate and culture in a unit, that's what supports a safety program."
She explained there is a better chance of success when safety programs involve employees.
Building a safety culture was also on the mind of Mike Negard, director, Strategic Communication Directorate at the USACR/Safety Center.
"Safety is a byproduct of doing things by the book," he told the group.
After the day-long event on Fort Rucker, Weyerhaeuser's managers planned to meet the next day and benchmark their organizations' safety programs based on what they heard and learned from the Army.
"We'll sit down together and pick each other's brains about what we heard and see what we can take back and apply to our operations," said Jeffrey Jackson, region harvest transportation manager for Weyerhaeuser in Arkansas and Oklahoma.
What did he take away from the event?
"I learned that safety isn't a one-time go-and-do-this and it's done kind of thing. It's a continuous process and it's ever-changing. You just don't stop being safe," he said. "Being successful about creating a positive safety culture with our contract drivers isn't a matter of just policing and punishing, but to truly move forward you have to get that safety buy-in with people you're working with everyday."
--30--
Photo cutline: Lt. Col. Spencer Ashford, director, Ground Directorate, Future Operations, USACR/Safety Center, discussed Composite Risk Management Dec. 6 with safety managers from Weyerhaeuser Corp. at Fort Rucker, Ala. The daylong Outreach event explained how the Army Safety Program has applications in industrial safety. (Photo by Art Powell)
Social Sharing