Big congratulations to our Monroe, NC animal glue manufacturing plant! When we wrapped up the 2011 Hazard Communication Report (with no recordable incidents for the past year) we also hit a milestone of 8.5 years at LD Davis’s manufacturing plant without any lost time accidents in the workplace. Safety protocol at our animal glue manufacturing plant is key to keeping everything running smoothly. The responsibility (and congratulations) for this mostly falls with Barry Barto, our Operations Manager of 17 years. Meet Barry here on our YouTube Channel!
If you read our blog on Monday, you already read part of Barry’s interview on safety in our animal glue manufacturing plant. Here’s the rest below!
What’s your “secret” for getting LD Davis’ animal glue production facility through these last 8.5 years without a lost time accident?
I had the opportunity to begin my career with US Steel in their Chemicals Division. Being a union shop and a hazardous chemical manufacturer our Safety program was next to none. The adage used in the USS plant was "Train, Tolerate, or Terminate.” There was very little toleration with respect to unsafe conditions or practices. We have in-house testing procedures that must be passed before an individual is allowed to handle certain chemicals used in our animal glue plant. In sixteen years I have only had to fire one employee for not following the procedure he was trained on.
What safety checks do you perform daily?
My guys see me on the floor, and talk to me. None of them would not hesitate to come to me and say "come look at this," say if they see an issue with a piece of our animal glue equipment. I immediately know something needs attention and it gets it. They are my source of intimate knowledge of the animal glue plant.
What we do is not to unlike you taking your car in for a service. We look. The guys check oil levels, grease fittings, nuts and bolts are tight, guards are in place. They take care of their equipment because it protects their job, and themselves. If the animal glue kettles are running they know they will be working. Safety is more attitude than programs and it comes from the top down. Tripp Davis, our president, doesn't want anyone hurt and neither do I.
The workers see I care about what and how they do things and if someone knows you care, it goes a long way in getting them to do things properly, meaning correctly and safely. That way we can continue to manufacture quality animal glue for years to come!
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