Most companies are addressing how to move their safety program to a higher level and obtain sustainable improvements in safety performance. At the same point, many companies are at some stage of moving from safety as an assigned responsibility for one individual to a more shared responsibility among staff members and all employees, particularly operations personnel. The concept of Team Based Safety (TBS) matches well with these opportune needs. Team Based Safety provides the tools and processes needed to integrate safety responsibilities at all levels of the organization.
The TBS process has been around in Lafarge North America for several years. It began at the Davenport Plant in Buffalo, Iowa, and was promoted within the company in earnest around 2004. The process was intended to improve safety and health systems, promote employee participation, build trust, and bridge relationships between employee and management groups.
In 1998, the Davenport cement plant experienced four lost time (LTA) accidents, with a lost time rate of 3.2. This performance was unacceptable. Davenport looked to their employees to help solve the problem. Employee Safety Action Teams were formed and this was the beginning of Team Based Safety within Lafarge. Davenport eliminated lost time accidents in 1999 and has continued to do so, going on eight years with out a LTA. Many plants within the company have looked to Davenport as a plant with success, using their TBS program, which they named EeSAT (Employee Safety Action Teams). Their process has been the subject of special publications and international recognition and awards within the corporation. This model has been adopted, in varying degrees, by several company locations across the US and Canada.
This history led the concept of TBS to become formally recognized as one of major factors driving the safety culture toward continuous improvement. The key concepts of TBS were outlined in the Company's Safety & Health Business Plan in 2004, while individual regional business units and locations also established objectives related to Team Based Safety.
Team Based Safety is not an attempt to move accountability for safety results from management to employees. Instead, it provides a non-threatening opportunity for teamwork on safety initiatives and promotes shared safety values across an organization. The process also has the flexibility to recognize the unique challenges and opportunities of individual locations. The company developed a tool box to promote the core elements of a Team Based Safety program and enhance implementations at all manufacturing facilities.
Team Based Safety has been associated with improved safety, health, and loss control performance at the sites that have embraced the process. The team-based model provides the opportunity to engage all employees in the business of safety by allowing employees and management who best know the operation to prioritize and solve safety and health-related issues. The process serves as a tool to build safety culture and increase the knowledge of safety and health processes and systems used within the company.