Sharing Safety
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At BlueScope steel, we believe that all injuries can be prevented. Carl Gruber, automation engineer |
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Visitors from the West
General Managers and safety professionals from BHP Billiton’s Nickel West operations visited BlueScope Steel’s Port Kembla site in November 2005, to benchmark against our safety systems.
The group represented a number of nickel mining, smelting and refining operations in Western Australia and visited our Port Kembla Cokemaking and Slabmaking departments and our Springhill operations. The purpose of the visit was to learn about our safety journey and safety management principles, and look for new initiatives to apply at their sites.
The group had the opportunity for discussion with management teams, seeing first hand our ‘felt leadership’ and commitment to safety.
The visitors found the opportunity to talk directly with our operations people particularly valuable.
“We were impressed with the openness of people we met to talk about safety” and “We are taking home some challenges for our own sites,” were some of the comments made by the visitors.
Vice President OH&S BlueScope Steel, Mick Cassar said the visitors were particularly impressed with the consistent message heard across the site.
“All departments demonstrated an expectation for everyone to work safely and the common belief that ‘All injuries can be prevented’,” he said.
“The group were also impressed with the work we have undertaken around forklift and people separation,” Mick said. “The general presentation of the plant and strong visual safety such as signage and clearly marked and barricaded walkways was a stand out feature for our visitors.”
Tata Visitors
As part of BlueScope Steel’s growing relationship with India’s Tata Steel, groups have begun visiting our Port Kembla operations in Australia to learn about our safety systems.
They have visited a number of departments including Slabmaking, Ironmaking, Cokemaking, Springhill Works, Plate Mill, Hot Strip Mill and Rail Transport. The visitors had the opportunity to discuss safety with BlueScope Steel employees and look for new ways of managing safety at their sites.
During their visits, the delegates commented on the level of passion for our safety journey.
While these visits are extremely valuable to the visitors, they also provide an opportunity for our own employees to talk about safety, and to share with pride the success of our continuing efforts towards Zero Harm. The visits are a tremendous reflection on the safety standards of all our employees.
Vice President OH&S BlueScope Steel, Mick Cassar said feedback from the groups has been encouraging. “They have experienced first-hand how safety is held as a primary value for our people,” he said.
Following the success of the program, further visits are expected to take place throughout 2006.
Tata BlueScope Steel is building a new business platform across Indian and South Asia that will manufacture zinc/aluminium metallic coated steel, painted steel and rollformed steel products, and deliver PEBs and other building products. The Company has operations in Pune (a LYSAGHT™ and BUTLER™ design and manufacturing centre), and rollforming facilities in Chennai and New Delhi with a metallic coating and painting facility to be built at Jamshedpur.
Thailand Contractor Safety Day
A recent Contractor Safety Day was a big step forward in assisting contractors to work safely at BlueScope Steel Thailand sites.
The main themes of the day were contractor safety and working at heights. Twenty-two contractor companies were represented at the workshop.
Safety and Environment Manager Thailand, Teerapong Raksasang said there had been a good response to the Contractor Safety Day with positive feedback from the contractors who attended.
Fluor Rail Maintenance Alliance Recognised for Safety
The Fluor Rail Maintenance Alliance team has been rewarded for their diligence in safety initiatives by achieving half a million hours LTI free on 7 July 2005.
The Fluor United Goninan Maintenance Alliance was formed in December 2001 to deliver on a contract for rail maintenance for BlueScope Steel in Port Kembla.
The Alliance provides maintenance and other services to the rail infrastructure comprising the track, bridges, wagons and locomotives.
A commemorative plaque was presented by Fluor’s Director of Operations, Dale Schulenberg to the OHS committee and the workshops they represent.
Hatch Australasia - 5 Million Hours LTI Free
BlueScope Steel’s engineering partner, Hatch has celebrated two major safety milestones at a barbecue held on 14 October 2005 at Port Kembla.
The achievements were:
- 1.4 million hours without a lost time injury (LTI) in the Australian and Asian operations; and
- 5 million hours without a lost time injury (LTI) for HATCH staff in Australasia.
HATCH spokesperson Craig Setter said: “A lot of hard work has gone into these achievements and a great deal of good cooperation between BlueScope Steel and ourselves in trying to improve our safety performance over the last few years, which is now paying dividends.”
