Tags Health & Safety, Innovation, Risk Compliance Governance (GRC)

Man of steel

You would expect health and safety to be a big deal in a steel manufacturing company like Doncasters, but you might not expect tech to be playing a big part in H&S compliance.

When Daniel Doncaster began using the crucible steel-making process to manufacture hand tools in Sheffield back in 1778, health and safety wasn't exactly top of his agenda. His main focus was on expertise and innovation, which partly explains why the company he founded is thriving over two centuries later.

Doncasters is today recognised as a world-leading manufacturer of components and systems for the aerospace, gas turbine, automotive and medical orthopaedic industries. Its client base includes heavyweights such as Rolls-Royce, Boeing and Siemens. Daniel Doncaster would be mightily proud were he still alive. He would also be highly aware that health and safety management is critical to the company's ongoing success. Skimp on that and the entire business could die a slow but steady death.

It's no wonder then that David McKelvie, Doncasters' group health and safety manager, took such care developing just such a system for his workplace of 23 years. Complying with national health and safety laws, to say nothing of industry-specific regulations, plus accreditation to recognised standards such as OHSAS 18001 – these are all crucial for an engineering company, especially when you look at the numbers involved.

"In 2002, we were averaging £500,000 to £800,000 in claims from 4,500 employees across our 25 sites worldwide," says McKelvie. "That gives you an idea just what an impact a good health and safety management system can have on the bottom line."

A "good" system was the key – this demanded more than just log accident reports. It needed to provide a comprehensive picture of health and safety throughout the entire company. McKelvie whittled his task down to four main business objectives: one, replace the existing range of site-specific systems (which were of varying quality) with a common sustainable programme; two, improve management control over the completion of important, outstanding actions; three, ensure that accidents and incidents were appropriately investigated; and four, find a way to produce management information much more quickly.

"I've been an engineer for 40 years and I apply engineering logic to anything I do," he says proudly. "In the end I chose FastWorks OH&S simply because of what it brought to the company overall."

Now mandatory for all 25 of Doncasters' factories, the system – provided by ThroughBox IT, an IBM Premier Business Partner – means the full details of any accident in any of the factories can be reviewed from a central location or any one of the sites. And whereas before McKelvie would spend hours on the road driving from factory to factory investigating individual accidents, investigations are now conducted locally.

"My time is better spent, allocating the appropriate resources to address any problem," he says.

And it's not just about accident reports. The megabytes of information at McKelvie's fingertips contribute to accident prevention as well. Performances across similar group companies can be compared, trends identified and corrective action organised.

"We stop them becoming big accidents by taking pre-emptive action," he says. McKelvie has also used the system to identify the more accident-prone individuals in the business and investigate why. "One chap had five accidents in three years, either because he was doing things the wrong way or he was just not suitable for the job. Pre-FastWorks OH&S, that information may not have left the local factory he was working in – if it had surfaced at all. But the system now meant I was alerted to the situation and could encourage local management to take appropriate action."

What is not an accident is the downward spiral in the number of claims against the company, even if rising lawyers' fees mean this is not always reflected in overall cost.

"Let's just say we're seeing a reduction in the number of erroneous claims we’re getting," he says. "In this business, a large proportion of payouts tend to be through lack of evidence as opposed to any proven culpability. Word has got round that we can readily interrogate any minor entry in the accident book and find out all the relevant facts in minutes. Fewer claims are being made as a result."

In effect, McKelvie can now prove, from his office chair, that standards of health and safety have risen markedly throughout the company while accreditation costs are down.

In true engineering style, McKelvie assumed a hands-on role when the system was installed and has since suggested ways of tweaking the system: "ThroughBox have been really helpful throughout and almost regard me as one of the team," he says. "We’re on first-name terms, but it remains a professional business relationship. We’ve been working to produce a module for our ten US factories, so it would embrace their equivalent of the HSE, called OSHA [Occupational Safety & Health Administration]."

Further success beckons: McKelvie is now seeking the environmental standard ISO 14001, to measure how successfully the company manages its environmental impact.

"Our customers tell us they would like to see us go down that route right now, so naturally we want to do that," he says. "And in any case, we're hardly starting from scratch. Now that we have the FastWorks OH&S in place, we can use the same back-end and control mechanisms, so there's no need to learn a new interface. My advice to anyone in a similar role is get one of these systems. I'm not only doing a better job now, my life has become easier – so much easier."

For more information, contact ThroughBox IT

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