Empowering safety transformation from the shop floor
Gonvarri stands out as a global leader in the steel and aluminum processing industry. Despite maintaining a steadfast commitment to safety for many years, Gonvarri recognised the need to fortify its safety culture and actively involve all levels of the organisation in minimising potential risks, moving beyond traditional top-down approaches by actively engaging shop floor teams.
Context
In the dynamic realm of steel and aluminium processing, Gonvarri Industries stands as a global leader, with a robust presence spanning 54 facilities across 27 countries and a dedicated workforce exceeding 6,000 employees. With an unwavering commitment to safety for many years, Gonvarri Industries embarked on a mission to fortify its safety culture, involving all levels of the organisation to proactively minimise potential risks.
Challenge
Recognising safety as a paramount concern, Gonvarri Industries sought a fresh perspective to renew and strengthen its safety initiatives. The challenge lay in moving beyond the traditional top-down approach, which had produced significant results in recent years but showed signs of stagnation, now with a specific focus on actively engaging the shop floor teams. The aim was to foster a collective sense of responsibility and heighten risk perception, ultimately leading to sustainable reduction of accidents.
Solution
Gonvarri Industries and dss+ initiated a groundbreaking pilot at Valencia plant, marking the inception of a journey that had to be led by shop floor workers. The goal was to progress towards Interdependence on the dss+ Bradley Curve™, empowering the workforce to anticipate and mitigate risks effectively. Adopting a structured methodology, a core team of shop floor employees participated in a series of workshops to identify, assess, and address risks. Through peer-to-peer conversations within the core team and their colleagues, the entire operational workforce assumed full ownership of the process, establishing essential routines and metrics to anticipate and mitigate risks. Key milestones included:
- Providing comprehensive training and coaching for personnel.
- Developing a tool for real-time identification and assessment of risks.
- Crafting guidelines to support, enhance, and sustain the ongoing programme and its safety roadmap.
This collaborative effort between Gonvarri Industries and dss+ fosters a culture where every employee plays an integral role in creating a safer work environment.
dss+ has played a vital role in engaging our front line workers in the Safety culture. The bottom-up quality of dss+ was the key factor we needed to reinforce Safety as our top priority.
- JF Chicote - Gonvarri Industries Valencia General Manager