Hydro’s remelt plant in Deeside, Wales, is one of the winners of the prestigious President’s HSE Award for 2009.
The unit received high marks from the award jury for systematic work leading to continuous improvement in health, safety and environment performance. Deeside, which is in Metal Markets, took the honors for units with fewer than 200 employees.
Deeside and three other finalists were visited to assess risk management, safety, security, health & work environment, and environment issues. It recommended the winners to President and CEO Svein Richard Brandtzæg, who made the final decision.
Highly committed
The jury found that Deeside’s management was highly committed to HSE and very focused on learning to further improve HSE performance, as well as deep employee involvement.
The unit is dedicated to control of HSE hazards, understanding and implementation of energy control as well as training and testing of every employee. There is a risk management system for environment in place and good follow up of environmental parameters.
Daily follow-up
The unit takes reported near-misses very seriously, with daily follow-up and feedback within 24 hours, and has good communication of results.
Deeside got good marks for emergency preparedness training on adequate scenarios for all employees and a very good housekeeping standard.
Continual improvement
Sue Bairstow, plant manager at Deeside, said, “This is a great honor for Deeside and a credit to all employees. Receiving this award is recognition for the work force, which have accepted change and embraced continual improvement over the 10 years under Hydro ownership.
“At the time of purchase, the TRI rate (total recordable injuries per million hours worked) was 120 and today there have been 907 days since the last TRI.”
“Housekeeping plus training and involvement of employees have been the main contributor to the improvement. Housekeeping levels are continuously improving and the outside areas of the site receive the same attention to achieve standards equal to inside the factory,” said Wayne Clifton, the Works Manager at Deeside.
Pro-active on HSE issues
“By involving the work force in near miss reporting, emergency preparedness, training, safety awareness days and other initiatives it encourages them to think and commit to be pro-active on HSE issues. The more health, safety and environment work you do, the more you realize how much more can be done, so with this in mind we will continue to improve further,” he said.
Henry Wilkins, Senior HSE Worker Representative at Deeside, said: “This award bears testament to Deeside’s policy of not standing still, of not accepting systems are OK or just adequate, of having committed personnel who are constantly reviewing systems and practices to see where improvements can be made, so be assured we will not be resting on our laurels. We will continue in our efforts to make the work place safer.”
