Safety Knights

I think zero lost time is attainable with the right light duty structure. I do agree that I think companies "fudge the numbers" to look good though. We have a 2023 goal to only have lost time when the doctor literally takes them off work or are prescribed certain drugs that would make it unsafe for them to be here. We have come up with numerous tasks for all sorts of light duty to hopefully make it so lost time injuries are only when there is no other option.

But I do agree that some places value no lost time in the wrong way. Looking at it as a gold star on their resume and not valuing the importance of reporting and communication to improve the workplace.

Yes, zero lost time injuries/illnesses is absolutely attainable. The problem is people don't want to put the work in to make it happen. I actually worked at a chemical manufacturer and we had zero recordables in my last 2 years there (compared to 5-7 per year before I first started).

Do some people lie and falsify records, either knowingly or unknowingly? Absolutely! However, there are plenty of companies out there that legitimately have zero lost time injuries/illnesses. Some could be attributed to "luck" (as some call it), whereas others have properly functioning safety management systems. To your point, though - you also have to make sure any incentive programs don't discourage reporting of injuries/illnesses, either directly or indirectly. This is outlined in an OSHA standard interpretation that many employers are not aware of, so any incentives based on reducing recordables by X, by X percent, etc. would be an OSHA violation.

Plus, you have to keep in mind that in many cases (not all), whether it's a lost time injury/illness or not depends on case management, knowing the right questions to ask your PLHCP when you get evaluated, etc.

So, yes, at the end of the day, it is possible and I've been fortunate enough to achieve it myself (even zero recordables after implementing an ANSI Z10-based SMS).

I understand what you're saying, and to some degree you're right about the "freak accidents", but I don't think that it's unattainable to have zero recordables some, or even most years.

With the right continual improvement process in place (combined with very strong support from company leadership), you can keep chipping away at hazards until you're not seeing the injuries anymore. It also depends a lot on the number of employees that you have. In a small 50 person plant, it's going to be a lot easier than it is in a 5,000 person plant. It's just statistics, no way around it. Where I live, we have a lot of snow and ice, and just like your example, people fall. The more people you have walking, the more likely it is that one of them slips and gets hurt.

I also think - and you may have been trying to make this point - that recordables are only one metric, and it's a poor one. Anything that treats someone burning their mouth on a hot pocket in the company break room as equal to being run over by a forklift isn't really a great safety metric.

Zero is definitely possible. I took a machine shop of 400 employees with a TIR of 19.0. That’s right if you do the math that is 76 OSHA Recordables a year! We hit ZERO for 12 months 5 years later. I have written the story here before. Was it one heck of an investment and a tremendous amount of work you bet. First rule is the power of ZERO Injuries is not so much getting there, but always striving to get there! By lowering the accidents we could be more strategic and much less tactical. We began to anticipate the “freak” accidents and get rid of those hazards! You mentioned Falls in the Parking Lot, we use to have 6-7 major falls on the ice and snow each year! A team studied the problem and FIXED IT! Have not had one fall in many years. I have an article on how we did Zero Injuries on www.safetyfitz.com

Agree it's impossible. I think it's attainable to have several years of no accidents, but I think it's very hard to get rid of the weird outliers over the span of a 5-10 year period.

Amanda, I agree that it's insanely hard due to weird incidents even if you're doing everything right. For example, during a holiday party last year, a client was walking downstairs with banana pudding, tripped, and fell (on nothing), and broke some bones in his back. Weird incidents occur sometimes...

It is completely achievable to have no loss time incidents but typically not sustainable in my experience of 13 years.

I worked for a manufacturing company in NC that we went nearly 1.5 years without a recordable! I don't know where they stand now, I left the company for "greener grasses".

We were 115 people fully staffed working 24/7. I had a great team at that location from my plant engineer to my Director of Operations. We kept the operators heavily involved in everything with rotating safety meetings. We made sure at least every person from every department went to at least on safety meeting a year. Their safety meeting attendance and their required observation goal was built into their yearly performance review. "This affected their raises because it was a job expectation!!

All of this was supported by our corporate safety manager and his boss. They met with the plants weekly to keep the DO's on task.

Yes, it can be done.

Or.... they are so driven to not accept lost time that extreme measures are taken to provide some type of work for them to do and avoid DART entries. I work for a construction company and restricted duty employees are used to clean job shacks, make new hire packets, or test drive new quizzes in safety topics.