KSM
The KSM Castings Group has been producing light metal castings for the automotive industry since 1947. The former private company now employs 3,600 people at nine locations worldwide and supplies a large number of well-known vehicle manufacturers with its high-quality products.
Investing in occupational safety
Challenge
At the beginning of 2016, the KSM plant in Wuppertal found that occupational safety was lagging considerably behind quality performance. The plant's accident figures were far above plan in 2015. A series of serious accidents was the trigger for a closer investigation. KSM's Wuppertal plant commissioned dss+ to conduct an assessment.
Solution
Although the supervisors in the factory were committed, there were efforts to improve occupational safety, there was no clear safety strategy. Together with dss+, KSM planned measures and set up an implementation plan in a strategy workshop in October 2016 with a vision for 2018/2020. With the support of dss+, KSM set up a new safety structure with a safety steering group and four working groups to develop the topics of communication, roles & responsibilities, safety dialogues and rules, and standards. dss+ trained all managers in behavioural safety dialogues and provided individual coaching to the top managers, while guiding them through the dss+ STOP® walk-throughs.
"The employees have understood that safety is important for themselves and for all of us, and they now point out rule violations themselves or approach outside companies about safety."
– Thorsten Behle, Deputy head of department for the MB Division