Safety is the most important factor for every one working in the manufacturing industry and on the premises of our business activities. We are engaged in various activities as we reaffirm our dedication to safety.
Safety Monument
With the serious workplace accident that occurred in 2014, we have made a promise to strive for zero accidents and not to forget the lesson learned from this tragic event. As a demonstration of our resolution to develop a strong culture of safety to protect precious human life, we erected safety monuments in front of the administration building at the Yokkaichi Plant. We held the unveiling ceremony and safety ceremony on the anniversary of the accident on July 23.
Featuring rough fieldstones, the outsides of the three monuments represent unpredictable elements; namely, risk factors, natural disasters, and self-conceit, respectively. Meanwhile, the perfect circles inside of the three monuments respectively represent "will, wisdom and practice of the top management, managers, and employees," thereby symbolizing our determination to place the highest priority on safety to overcome the previously-mentioned unpredictable elements. The harmony created by the three perfect circles reminds us that human lives are precious and must be protected. The supporting platform that extends horizontally represents a wide variety of backgrounds and foundations that underpin "will, wisdom and practice" and, at the same time, our prayers for the tranquil repose of the soul of the precious human life that was lost.
Safety affects all stakeholders and is a fundamental challenge for management. With this in mind, the JSR Group has made it a goal to achieve zero facility accidents and zero accidents requiring time off from work. Despite this, we had one fatal accident and two cases of facilities trouble in FY2015.
We pray for the employee who passed away as a result of the serious workplace accident at the Yokkaichi Plant on July 23, 2014 and express our sincerest condolences to the bereaved family.
We would also like to apologize again for the trouble and concern caused to those living near the Yokkaichi and Kashima plants, authorities involved, and our customers regarding the facility troubles that occurred at these plants.
As a result of employee survey in the company about awareness, conducting interviews, through discussion at each department, and a third-party audit for a root-cause analysis, we realized that there are gaps between our current organization and actual circumstances at the plants on foundation of safety infrastructure (including investment in safety equipment and organizational strengthening) and our culture of safety.
Under the philosophy that safety is the most important aspect for every one working in the manufacturing industry and a fundamental key in business, the JSR Group has taken this feedback seriously and has begun efforts to regain safe workplace and safety awareness and reestablish the culture of safety and safety infrastructure.
As part of our resolution to prevent workplace and facility accidents from occurring and reduce the factors that lead to similar types of serious workplace accidents and fires/explosions in plants, we are planning an investment of 3 billion yen for safety equipment and 7 billion yen to enhance earthquake resistance and update old buildings and equipment. Additionally, we will continue to make more effective investments in industrial safety measures.
We are committed to identifying potentially dangerous equipment that can lead to serious accidents and providing a safe working environment that gives piece of mind to plant workers.
1. Investment to prevent equipment from catching fire and exploding, and prevent workers from getting caught and trapped, from falling, or being exposed to a lack of oxygen.
2. Consideration on implementing ICT (information communication technologies) and robotics.
Details of measure: The opening of the rotating area is covered with a sheet of perforated metal so that hands can no longer get caught.
1. Reforming safety system with feedback from third-party reviews
We have discovered the systems that needs review from results of internal analysis and third-party review to reform our safety and health management system and enhance its effectiveness. (This reforming also aims to make us compliant with global OHSAS* standards on health and safety.)
2. Review of equipment management standards with the latest technologies
We will review our safety design standards, including the system, while also reorganizing the information on safety equipment. Some of the specific efforts include review of the process to allocate budget related to safe environment and analysis on safety equipment, monitoring, and communications devices that we should implement.
3. Review of resources in manufacturing, facilities management, and indirectly related departments
We will clarify the how organizational structure and management and supervisory systems should be and enhance our systems to ensure safe operation in manufacturing departments through creation of a safe working environment for operators, enhancement of operations monitoring capability for managers, and proper distribution of work between indirectly related departments.
* Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS)
International standards to establish and maintain Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMS).
President Koshiba visiting a plant
Safety and environment audit process
We were not able to fully understand the actual circumstances through our previous safety and environment audits, which were not lead to increase in performance. With the FY2015 audit, the president himself observed plants with a focus on management concepts of the actual place, the actual conditions, and the actual results, and personally verified potentially dangerous areas and the status of old equipment and facilities.
We have changed audit methods to facilitate communication of executive management's message to plant operators regarding prioritizing safety as well as to facilitate direct dialogue with employees concerning work activities and equipment that employees feel uncomfortable with. Plant workers being audited felt that it was a good opportunity to honestly give their opinion and feedback. We will continue to explore audits that lead to safety improvement.
Managing Officer (Safety and Environment Affairs)
Yasuhisa Nagahiro
We have been making efforts to prevent workplace accidents and facility accidents, but we were unable to prevent a serious workplace accident on July last year. We are now approaching this issue from many angles. One of these efforts is the establishment of the Safety and Health Promotion Dept. and Environment Dept. as an enhanced reorganization of our Safety and Environment Department. Previously, the Safety and Environment Department conducted general office duties to ensure safety, but actual safety activities were at some extent considered as each plant's responsibility. The Safety and Health Promotion Dept. is a specialized organization focusing on researching and testing safety provisions that match actual business activities to improve plant support. For example, this includes educating employees with knowledge of safety designs that incorporate an understanding of the types of chemical reactions that occur with materials we use, conducting PDCA safety audits in accordance with actual circumstances, and training employees to properly conduct process hazard analysis (PHA). We are currently running the Workplace Accident Eradication Project and the Safety Infrastructure Reform Project. The Workplace Accident Eradication Project focuses on developing a culture of safety, while the Safety Infrastructure Reform Project focuses on rebuilding our safety infrastructure. The results of these efforts will eventually be consolidated to the Safety and Health Promotion Dept.. Having confidence and unconscious expectation to go to work and come home every day without accidents has maximum value for our organization and employees. We must all be aware of safety and act accordingly throughout our daily work activities.