Photo By Master Sgt. J. L. Wright Jr. | Godfrey McDowell uses a solvent tank to clean a trailing-edge flap actuator to prepare...... read more read more
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Fleet Readiness Center Southeast (FRCSE) recently claimed top honors in the CNO Shore Safety Awards Program, earning the 2014 Safety Excellence Unit Award for medium industrial, shore activity.
Medium industrial category indicates the command has a military and civilian working population between 1,000 and 3,000; and its primary mission is the production, maintenance, or rehabilitation of Navy equipment, material, or facilities.
“This accomplishment proves FRCSE is striving toward a goal to be a world class organization and we put the safety of our people first,” said FRCSE Commanding Officer Capt. John Kemna. “The safety of our team is the command’s highest priority. We strive to maintain a safe command culture every day and work hard to get our safety record below industry standards. I am excited our command is being recognized for our safety initiatives. Employee vigilance and involvement is the key to the success of our safety program.
“This safety culture and perspective directly results in a greater impact on the on-time delivery of readiness to our customers and at a better cost,” he added. “Safety is schedule performance, safety is cost performance!”
Peter Gallant, the center’s safety director, also received recognition as part of the awards program. He was selected as the only civilian in the individual award category.
“FRCSE and Mr. Gallant are being recognized for their outstanding support and achievement in safety and occupational health in reducing mishaps and demonstrating strong safety leadership while being innovative and enthusiastic in marketing and promoting safety within their command,” wrote Rear Adm. Paul Sohl, commander, Fleet Readiness Centers.
Gallant attributed the success of FRCSE to ‘teamwork’ and said there is nothing more important than safety.
“Our mission is to produce a very valuable commodity for a very precious customer. What we produce is in very high demand not only for our customer but for our country,” he said. “We have an obligation to produce a very high-quality part, service, or commodity. We also have an obligation to produce it at promised schedule and cost, and we can’t do any of that by sacrificing the welfare of our workers.”
Gallant added that the focus on safety is not just at the supervisory level and everyone plays a big role in mitigating unsafe situations.
“You have to be focused at all times,” said Godfrey McDowell, one of the center’s F/A-18 aircraft mechanics. “It’s easy to get complacent when you are working in an environment like this. But, the command does an excellent job reminding us how important we are to them and encourages us to speak up when we see something unsafe.”
The awards program is designed to recognize outstanding efforts in risk management and mishap prevention, according to Office of the Chief of Naval Operations Instruction 5100.23G. The program also recognizes commands with the best overall safety program record; and individuals who have made significant contributions to the command.
Three commands qualified and were considered for the award, according to Stan Willingham, a safety and occupational health specialist with the Naval Safety Center.
Gallant said the initiatives created last year are what helped set FRCSE apart from its contemporaries.
Early in the year, one of the branch heads lobbied to implement a program where each shop would have a safety representative who would meet bi-weekly to discuss ways to make the areas safer places to work. The idea was met with open arms from both leadership and artisans.
“I talked with several employees and they always asked to be part of the safety process,” said Rick O’Cain, who served as the Crinkley Engine Facility branch head during fiscal year 2014. “I solicited volunteers from each shop, to be the spokesperson or safety lead for the particular shop.
“Working with (Gallant), we provided safety training and each month - they held safety meetings to present the material to their team.”
Avionics Facility Branch Head Robin Geer championed another successful idea to mitigate safety concerns. He took a production tracker; a printed form used to track the progress of assigned tasks, and added a section for safety issues. The forms were placed in prominent areas throughout the workspaces where employees could use the form to identify safety problems.
“If a safety concern is written on the tracker, it is the supervisor’s responsibility to not only fix the discrepancy, but annotate when and how it was corrected,” said Geer. “My staff and I conduct weekly walk-through inspections of the tracker to ensure problems are being resolved.”
The concept was so successful at improving safety around the plant, it was instituted throughout FRCSE.
Other initiatives included hosting town hall meetings with the commanding officer and executive officer; establishing a safety focus group; implementing 100 percent use of hearing protection in all areas exposed to 85 decibel noise hazards.
Several other safety processes played a role in the command being selected, according to Amy Smith, an occupational safety and health specialist at FRCSE.
“Through consistent training, employee involvement and implementing safety management systems, we have been able to get our safety mishap numbers to decline,” said Smith.
In the award nomination, the command included three-year trend analyses boasting a reduction in recordable mishaps and compensation costs – it also highlighted a historical command-low for total case incident rate. Gallant said these numbers are a true measure of success but the goal of achieving a mishap-free workplace is still the ultimate objective.
“The goal is to have zero mishaps. Why should we accept anything less? Our mindset is to go home just as good – or better – than you came to work in the morning,” he said.
Looking to the future, FRCSE intends to continue to set the bar high by instituting ways to increase safety awareness and reduce work-related injuries.
Kemna recently initiated the ‘Skipper’s Safe Site Challenge,’ a program which divides the command into small areas dubbed ‘safe sites.’ Every employee is a member of a safe site.
The intent is to encourage ownership in each safe site; encourage every employee to identify and eliminate hazards; and to tailor safety objectives to each safe site.
“I’m excited about what this initiative can do for us,” Kemna said. “The most important asset we have is our people. Workplace mishaps hurt our people, and that is simply unacceptable.”
| Date Taken: | 04.16.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 04.17.2015 12:05 |
| Story ID: | 160345 |
| Location: | NAVAL AIR STATION JACKSONVILLE, FL, US |
| Hometown: | ALBANY, GA, US |
| Hometown: | KAILUA, HI, US |
| Hometown: | ROCHESTER, NY, US |
| Web Views: | 94 |
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