2006 Safety Award plaques winners (back row, left to right): John Cain/Scot Forge; Steve Smith/Eaton Corp.; Mike Frizzell and George Hules/Martin Tool & Forge; George Haime/Metform LLC; and (front row, left to right) Paul Gerus/Composite Forge; Bill Hoban/ Green Bay Drop Forge; George Thanopoulos HHI/Net Forge; and Bill Glavin/Carolina Forge - MFC Group.
Each year at its annual meeting of members, the Forging Industry Association (www.forging.org) honors member companies who have achieved success in their safety programs during the previous year.
This year, 13 companies were presented with plaques in recognition of their achievements. An additional 32 companies received safety award certificates. All the winners were categorized into groups, based on the size of the company. (see table)
The safety award winners were determined by the FIA Safety & Health Committee, based on incident and severity rates as reported on logs required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The committee evaluates OSHA recordable incidents, including total deaths, total lost-workday cases, total incidents involving days away from work, total number of days away from work, total days of restricted work activity, total injuries and illnesses without lost workdays, total employee hours worked, and annual number of employees.
Information for the competition is gathered from questionnaires mailed annually to all FIA producer members. Producer members provide the data recorded on OSHA Form No. 300, "Summary of Occupational Injuries/Illnesses for Calendar Year" for U.S. companies, and from Worker's Compensation Reports for Canadian companies on the questionnaires. Completed returns provide the basis not only for the Annual Safety and Health Awards, but also for the Annual Occupational Injury & Illness Report.
Two rates were computed for each participant: DART Incidence Rate, and Frequency Rate. The published report provides a summary for the total industry and detailed company rankings, according to the Incidence Rate by size groups. Each participant will fall within one of four size categories according to four groups based on average annual employment. The number of employees is based on the entire forging operation for the company, plant, or division being reported, including executive, administrative, clerical, sales, maintenance, and production.
Based on the information collected, the committee determines first-, second-, and third-place awards in each group for companies having the lowest Summary Rate provided that the DART Incidence Rate falls below the group average. In the event that the Summary Rates are equal, the lower DART Incidence Rate will determine the award.
In addition, an improvement award was given to companies in each category for achieving the greatest improvement in incidence rate statistics. This award is determined on the basis of the percentage of improvement in incidence rate compared with the average rate of the last three years.
Certificates of recognition were also awarded to companies that did not receive a first, second, or third place award whose Incidence Rate falls below the group averaging provide that the Frequency Rate also falls below the group average.
| FIA TO PROVIDE EMPLOYEE SAFETY PERCEPTION SURVEY The survey is designed to help a forging company to evaluate its workers' perception of its safety programs. The following are just a few of the areas that the survey focuses on:
Each company's individual responses will be identified and known only to the company and to an FIA staff person. A company's data will be tabulated on-site by the company's safety coordinator and e-mailed directly to FIA. FIA will then enter the data into a comprehensive database made up of all participating companies. A personalized report will then be developed for each company, showing what the overall database's aggregate agree/disagree percentage was, and what each company's responses were for each question. |