Driving Safety and Productivity - Views and Opinions
Hello All,
I want to write a blog on the correlation between driving safety and productivity. The blog will highlight that investing in field employees' driving safety is necessary as it promotes productivity. Offering them protection from road accidents eases the minds of the field employees and reinstates their loyalty towards their company, which ultimately positively impacts their work.
Do you agree? I would like to hear your opinions on the same. With your due consent, I would also like to incorporate your quotes in our blog.
I am looking forward to enriching and valuable insights for all.
Comments (3)
Have any studies been done on this? If yes, I'm curious what were the results
Wow, could I write a BOOK on this subject! In Manufacturing Ops for the first half my career of almost 50 years total, from Supervisor to Plant Manager! I spent a lot of time at driving productivity, earning standard hours, maximizing direct labor, increasing value added time, and all the other performance metrics. On the flip side about reducing waste, overhead, scrap, rework, non-value added time, and indirect labor!
At that same time we TALKED and said "Safety is #1!" However, I was told this by my boss several nights, typically the last day of the month, while a Senior Foreman, "Fitz, I do not care what you do, or how you do it! You and your crew fight and claw, dig and scrap, and CUT CORNERS, do whatever you have to do! But your supervisors, men, and you MUST ship 700 tons of castings to Ford tonight before any of you can go home!" We normally shipped at most 400 tons. I would be ashamed to tell you what we did!
But later I found another much better way, "Nothing is more important than Safety!" Like most things in life it is all about BALANCE! We have done away with all those metrics through Lean Transformation! Lean is all about making things more efficient and eliminating WASTE! It is about DIRTFIT (Do it Right the First Time). Scarp and Rework and especially ACCIDENTS are ALL WASTE! If nothing is more important than Safety selling that $25,000 on a light curtain takes ROI off the table! Just always do the SAFE thing! There is much more to Lean but that is the light! I am telling you, and I have 50 years experience!
Balance, Ying and Yang, Native American Medicine Wheel, and on and on is the key! Balance! "Nothing is More Important Than Safety!!!" But many things are as important!