Two Million Man Hours without a Lost Time Injury

Americast - Ashland Plant

On Monday, August 9th, 2010, the Americast Structures plant in Ashland, VA attained an unprecedented safety goal. Over the span of the last thirteen years the workers of this site have put in two million hours of hard work without a single “Lost Time” injury. A couple of employees who have worked at the Ashland plant for the entire thirteen year stretch were asked how they achieved this remarkable goal and what it meant to them.

An Americast employee since 1980, Jeffrey Shelton stated, “We got to this point by starting the safety program years ago. I’ve been here thirty years and before the program people watched out for themselves and not each other; it was chaos out there.”

Mike Peatross, hired in 1993, said “It’s a goal we are all proud of and in this industry that many hours without a lost time injury is like winning the Super Bowl. We all have families we want to get home to at the end of the day, so now we look out for each other”.

Producing precast concrete products for storm and sanitary use is demanding work. These employees must stay continually focused while working with multiple overhead cranes, industrial trucks, and automated machinery. Americast began to grow its safety program in the 1990’s and then adopted a formal program in June of 1999. Employees now attend monthly safety training as well as weekly tool box topics to stay alert and current with changes in OSHA and industry standards. The company also employs HSE Managers to oversee and continually build the Health Safety and Environmental program. These managers have drawn from resources such as the NPCA and HCCA for training and industry changes. The Ashland plant has received numerous safety recognitions from these organizations over the last decade.

Dave Brinser, General Manager of the Ashland Plant added, “We at Americast are all very proud of this achievement. I can attribute this milestone to several things including a great working relationship with our local occupational health services, the devotion and commitment of our safety managers, and their efforts to always keep safety in the forefront of the employees’ thoughts each and every day. Most of all, this accomplishment is a result of our workforce. Over the past 13 years we have been through very busy times and have logged a lot of long hours to keep up with demand. This is when carelessness can easily lead to an injury, but our people have stood the test of time and do a very good job of looking out for one another throughout the work day. We implemented the ‘One Day at a Time’ philosophy some years ago which is a very simple principle—let us all focus on each and every day as a single goal to complete our work and all go home safely to our families. If we take it one day at a time, then those days will add up and we can achieve milestones like this one. Our next target, of course, will be to safely work tomorrow and then the next day and the next. Before you know it we will be at 3 million man-hours.”

Americast would like to thank all who were involved in making this goal possible including VOSH, the NPCA, PCAV, HCCA, management, and most importantly, all the dedicated, hard working employees.

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