Presented at the 2017 Mining Health and Safety Conference by Steve Wrixon, Cementation Canada
In order to pursue the continuous improvement of its operational safety program, Cementation Canada embarked on a one year planning process to develop a new 5 Year Strategic Safety Plan. This was seen as an inspirational goal set forth in July 2015 by the operations department. As the Safety Management System develops and employees become familiar and more comfortable with its elements, one would naturally expect the total recordable injury frequencies to keep declining, as has been the industry trend over the last fifteen years. However, in recent years the reduction in Cementation’s injury frequencies had levelled out. It became evident that there is a need to do things better or differently in order to further improve safety performance.
This presentation describes the process applied in the development and implementation of the 5 Year Strategic Safety Plan. The process began with a thorough internal analysis of the existing Safety Management System, looking both at i) what is being done well and ii) opportunities for improvement. This was followed by an external review of safety best practices involving a collaborative approach with clients, competitors and other businesses viewed as safety leaders. These findings and observations were documented and incorporated into the final strategy document, and this has been presented to management and senior operations personnel for company-wide implementation.