The Zero Injury Concept
Explained It was in 1987 that The Business
Roundtable made the first CISE awards. It was noted that two
of the awardees, an owner and a contractor, had performed their
work without Lost Workday cases for two years and four years
respectively. The owner had used over 2,000,000 hours of labor
without a single lost workday case. The contractor had worked
four years with a 600 worker crew without a single Lost Workday
Case, an amazing 4,800,000 hours. These amazing achievements
were soon labeled the "Zero Injury" phenomenon borrowing
from author Philip Crosby's "Zero Defect" approach
to Quality. Soon after, the Construction Industry Institute located
at the University of Texas, Austin, agreed to perform indepth
research into the question of "How do some contractors and
owners achieve millions of hours worked in construction without
a single serious injury."Zero Injury" as a concept is frequently misunderstood. Many say that it is unreasonable to expect workers to go uninjured, therefore "Zero Injury" is a misnomer. In this sense it might be, but like all words there is frequently more than one meaning. Properly defined as now used, the term "Zero Injury" represents a position by management in the interest of the workers. The "Zero Injury" position adopted by owner's and contractor's senior management is this: Zero injury is the desired end product. Any injury is unacceptable on its face. We are committed to "eliminate injury from the workplace." This management stance sends the unfailing message to all employees that any injury is an unacceptable "non-quality" event.  With this definition, from the
CEO on down in the organization, all management knows that there
is no higher priority than to complete the work without injury.
This is "commitment redefined."The world record for hours worked without a LWC by an individual contractor using the Zero Injury Concept now stands at 35,000,000 hours. The contractor? S&B Engineering of Houston Texas. The world record for hours worked without a Recordable now stands at 4,600,000 hours. The contractor? Again S&B of Houston, Texas. This amazing performance has been achieved while embracing the notion that Zero Injury is the only acceptable end product of safety. Have these believers totally eliminated injury? No. But one can hardly argue with their success. Have these contractors spent great sums of money on enlarged safety programs? The answer is Yes and No. "Yes" they have spent significant sums of money in the area of safety awareness and education, but "NO" they have not "lost" money in the process. To the contrary, they have increased their profits markedly because there are indeed greater losses in a workplace filled with the direct and indirect cost of injury than most people are willing to consider.  The Zero Injury concept is based
on the principal lead safety technique of a "Demonstrated Senior Management
commitment to eliminate injury." Flowing from this is a
renewed commitment at all levels in an organization to work injury
free. Once the trades people see such a commitment to their welfare
from their management they become more productive. This is not
a theory. It is proven fact. Why is this? Call today for your introduction to Zero Injury. The Zero Injury concept does not mean another injury will never occur. But it does mean a commitment to working as many hours as you possibly can without another injury. And it means that if an injury does occur it is not just another "ho-hum" event because with the "Zero Injury" concept in place any injury is unacceptable and people act accordingly. Safety of the workers becomes primary! When all understand this, it is then the "extremely high cost" of worker injury can be reduced to sums that were only dreamed of a decade ago. |
|
|
[ Home ] - [ The Requirements ] - [ The Concept ] - [ Cost of Injury ] - [ About Emmitt J. Nelson ]  Website contents copyright Nelson Consulting, Inc., 1998. Site developed and constructed by CardSecure® WebDesign, 1998 |