At Lindsay, Safety is No Accident

For any manufacturing plant, an outstanding safety record depends on committed employees.

“You can have the best equipment in the world, but that won’t matter without employees who make safety a priority,” said Jeffrey Seymour, Global Environment Manager. “At Lindsay, safety is not just a goal – it’s an expectation. We have outstanding safety records at our three North American plants and six international locations, because our employees are engaged and willing to be part of the solution when potential problems arise.”

Seymour added that two locations – our plants in Rio Vista, California and outside Milan, Italy – recently achieved manufacturing safety milestones.

“The employees in those plants achieved the 365-day incident-free mark, which is a rarity for any manufacturing facility,” he said. “It’s a milestone that we’re very proud of.”

To keep safety top of mind, plant managers participate in weekly calls – discussing concerns and ideas for improvement, which are shared with other locations. Each facility also has a designated safety committee made up of managers and shop level employees.

“Everyone has a voice,” Seymour said. “We welcome and appreciate input from all levels.”

Plant employees also had an opportunity to take part in our “Summer Safety Games” – held the last week of July through the end of August at all manufacturing locations. For this competition, points were awarded for no reportable safety incidents as well as near miss and safety improvement reports.

“A near miss is an incident that happens without injury. Those are important to track, because it’s our best opportunity to identify a potential problem and get it fixed before there’s a serious incident,” he said. “The safety improvement reports come from our employees. They give us ideas that can help improve overall safety at the plants.”

The five facilities that came out on top in our first Summer Safety Games, include:

• Bronze Awards – Olathe, Kansas and Rio Vista, California plants
• Silver Award – manufacturing facility outside of Milan, Italy
• Gold Awards – Lindsay’s China and Brazil plants

“A lot of companies say safety is their number one priority, but at Lindsay our actions speak louder than words,” Seymour said. “We engage our employees on many different levels, so safety isn’t just a practice… it’s a way of life.”