PSM/RMP & Employee Participation Best Practices
Hello, during an internal audit of our PSM/RMP program we found that our Employee Participation Section is lacking. Are there any best practices out there on getting employees involved and to present them with the proper information required per PSM/RMP?
Comments (10)
I am not 100% on what you are talking about? My last corporate employer was really really into Lean Manufacturing (since about) 2001. The entire corporation followed the Toyota Manufacturing Lean System. When I retired every location (of 300 in North America) was Lean Certified. My location was the first location certified in North America and the 5th world-wide! So we lived an breathed Lean! It was in EVERYTHING we did, We had Lean, Quality, EHS, Engineering, Supply Chain, HR, and for sure Manufacturing! For example our Incident Investigation Process required the use of the "A3 Problem Solving Technique' which was the same for all other investigations in anything (like Quality and Production). So with any employee incident, accident, near serious (near miss), OSHA recordable, or other problems, an A3 was required. Our A3 process required the formation of a team to complete the investigation. The bed rock of any Lean Program is Employee Engagement!
Employee participation in this kind of environment was supposedly not mandatory. But it you wanted raises, consideration for training, and promotion you participated! This was from the lowest janitor to the highest manager! So when I needed a Team for an A3 investigation, Safety Team (like a Lockout Team), New Machine Approval Process, or whatever I just asked people to join this team, or asked supervisors to draft me people. Once in a great while I might be told, "Well I am really busy on my Set-up Reduction and Threading Teams so cannot join your team now. I am sorry." but that was a rare thing! Bottom line employee engagement was easy because it was expected. So the short answer is Culture, Culture, Culture!
What employee involvement strategies do you currently have in place? Are they involved and participating in your PHAs?
I did not read all of the thread but I did see a mention of your Employee Participation Program for PSM/RMP. That plan should identify how you engage employees for active participation and a critical part of that plan is “consulting” employees. Examples of what we use for engagement - Participation in PHA’s, employees participating in developing training material, involved in monthly PSM committee meetings, stop work authority, aware of compliance audit actions or pha recommendation and involved in closure of those tasks with oversight from a supervisor/manager or simply consulting employees for task closure, employees involved with drafting or reviewing SOPs, or involved with inspections or PSSRs.