Rewriting the Recipe for Safety: A Global Food Manufacturer’s Transformation

Challenge

Over six years, a global food manufacturer faced a persistent challenge. Their safety performance had stalled, with injury rates remaining steady between 600-700 incidents each year across a workforce of more than 18,000 employees. For company leaders, these numbers were a clear signal—something had to change.

The organization yearned for a cohesive safety vision. Best practices were needed at every level of operational leadership, along with site-specific roadmaps to drive lasting transformational change and align the company culture.

dss⁺ Approach
To elevate performance, the company partnered with dss⁺, launching a comprehensive, company-wide assessment to gauge the maturity of its safety culture. This assessment uncovered critical strategic opportunities for improvement.

Over two years, dss⁺ crafted transformational roadmaps tailored to the cultural maturity across 27 locations. To ensure lasting adoption of safety excellence, dss⁺ delivered targeted initiatives—including in-field coaching for frontline leaders and managers. The goal of every session was clear, to build competencies through a science-based, risk-informed approach that would influence human behavior and decision making change.

Coaching sessions were also held for site-based “Process Teams” to strengthen core elements of safety governance. This included incident investigation processes, quality of safety interactions, rule and procedure evaluations, and overall associate engagement in safety initiatives.

dss⁺ conducted a total of 23 workshops across the organisation designed to strengthen safety leadership capabilities and implement targeted safety transformation programs. The initiatives not only enhanced the safety culture but also embedded lasting sustainability.

Assignment

To improve the company’s safety culture and establish a cohesive safety vision.

Offering

Safety Performance Excellence System

Impact

• 10-15% decrease in average monthly recordable injuries over a two year period.
• Sustained efforts led to a 16% injury reduction and 2,100+ fewer lost workdays at 17 dss+-supported sites.
• 30-40% year-to-year increase in monthly hazardous condition reporting.
• 8-25% year-to-year increase in monthly near-miss reporting.
• Sites that worked with dss⁺ used higher-level safety controls approximately 20–25% more often than non-participating sites.