Intelex would like to congratulate Metso Minerals on their newly implemented, global safety program! The following article was featured in Mining News Magazine and discusses Metso's proactive approach to safety.

Safety Is No Accident

Metso Raises the Bar with Global Standards

Mention safety to most mining industry people and their first picture is of protective headgear and reflective vests. But according to Chris Adkins, global health and safety specialist for Metso Mining's Life Cycle Services (LCS) team, the future of safety is more in software than in hardhats. "There'll come a time," he says, "when we'll be able to remotely monitor what every single job site is doing from a safety point of view."

To achieve this goal, the LCS team has launched a Safety Management System using Intelex, a web-based safety software application, which is both completely configurable and globally accessible. Best of all, according to Adkins, is the way the system can be specifically tailored to meet the needs of the user.

Configurable System

"With the Safety Management System now operational," he says, "Metso supervisors and managers can manage safety documents, report employee incidents and draw upon continuously updated best practice guidelines from Metso operations worldwide." Furthermore, safety guidelines and information can be configured according to the legal or linguistic requirements of different countries.

Adkins explains that the new Metso system "can also be specified for various levels of management and education, including safety training for particular machines or service contracts." Training courses will be able to cover every aspect of mining safety or can be individualized for subjects as varied as mills, confined spaces and road safety. The Intelex program can also help to assess relevant conditions at a job site and to monitor local governmental or environmental standards.

Standard Practices

There are currently over 440 safety-related documents in a variety of languages in the system and running "live" in eight countries. The remaining countries where Metso operates service contracts should be "live" on Intelex by the end of 2008, by which time the management reports section of the system will also be operational.

Adkins sees Metso's Safety Management System as vital in establishing a uniform code of safety behaviors. "Part of my role is to create standard practices that are equal in every region," he says. "With verifiable results I can help protect and maximize the potential of Metso's greatest resource, our employees".

Adkins concludes, "People are realizing that safety is not a fad. We're here to stay."

"We'll be able to remotely monitor what every job site is doing from a safety point of view." – Chris Adkins

Photo left to right - Neil Hughes (Legal Services & Risk Manager, Australia), Chris Adkins (Global Health & Safety Specialist, Life Cycle Services), Howard Savage (SHEQ Manager, Australia) & Pieter Geldenhuys (SHE Manager, South Africa)

© Metso Mining News 2008

Metso's safety program is powered by the Intelex Safety Management System. Speak with an Intelex Account Manager about how your business can benefit from an organization-wide safety program.

Whether ascribing to government and/or industry regulatory standards, Intelex’s Performance Dashboards work to quickly and accurately assess how your organization measures up. 

Performance Dashboards can be built from any of the twenty one different Scorecards the Intelex Reporting Suite offers, Metric Scorecards being the most powerful.  As its name suggests, Metric Scorecards, along with Metric Columns, allow Intelex users to hone in on the metrics and key performance indicators vital to their organization’s success. 

Now, try to imagine a single page within your Intelex System where all EQH&S metrics pertinent to your own organization can be referred to.  Dan Marcus, one of Intelex's Account Managers did just that.  Check out his Performance Dashboard made up entirely of Metric Scorecards:

It's safe to assume Dashboards like these can be of benefit to any organization.  If you haven’t started using Metric Scorecards to enhance EQH&S reporting, start small and see what they can do for you.  We’re confident the results will impress.  If you feel you’d rather have Intelex build your Performance Dashboards for you, we encourage you to submit the ideas you feel will work for you.

Legal and Other Requirement Dashboards and Scorecards are now available for free download on the Intelex-Exchange.  Import them directly into your Intelex System to get the most out of your Legal and Other Requirements Intelex Module. 

DASHBOARD
Legal and Other Requirement Dashboard

SCORECARDS

Metric Scorecard
Legal and Other Requirements - Metric Scorecard

Configurable Report Scorecards
Overdue Legal Requirements
Overdue Other Requirements
Overude Permits by Reapply Date
Legal Requirements - Next Year
Legal Requirement History - Current Year
Other Requirements - Current Year
Upcoming Legal Requirements - Current Year
Permit Renewal - Current Year
Overdue Permit Activities - Current Year

Graphical Scorecards
Legal Requirements by Type - Current Year
Legal Requirements - Current and Upcoming Year
All Overdue Legal Requirements
Other Requirements - Current and Upcoming Year
All Overdue Legal Requirements
All Overdue Permits
Permits - Current and Upcoming Year
All Overdue Permit Activities
Permit Activity by Month - Current and Upcoming Year
Permit Activity Cost by Location

Search Component Scorecards
Legal Requirements - Search Component Scorecard
Other Requirements - Search Component Scorecard
Permit Activities - Search Component Scorecard
Permits - Search Component Scorecard

Other Scorecards
Legal and Other Requirements - Toolbar Scorecard
Legal and Other Requirements - Task List Scorecard

Several different metrics are employed by organizations to keep track of their progress towards achieving sustainability goals. These performance indicators typically show up in annual sustainability reports or on the sustainability sections of corporate websites. Executives and environmental managers usually have access to these KPIs on the dashboards of Environmental Mangement Systems and/or Safety Management Systems. Here is a brief survey of some of the most popular indicators.  

SAFETY

Cost of solved safety non-conformances
Health and safety prevention costs
Lost time (in hours) due to accidents (including fatalities)
Lost time (in h ours) due to non-fatal accidents
Number of fatalities
Number of non-conformance with legal or internal standards in safety inspections
Number of solved safety non-conformances
Number of reportable accidents(including fatalities)
Number of reportable non-fatal accidents
Percentage of corrective actions closed out within specified time-frame
Total of hours in safety and health training

ENERGY USE

Total Energy Use (Joules or Million kWh)

WATER USE

Water Use (million L)

AIR EMISSIONS

Carbon Dioxide (million kg)
Ozone Depleting Substance Releases (Kg)
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) (Kg)
Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) (Kg)
Permitted Air Emissions (million kg)

WASTE

Hazardous Waste Generation (million kg)
Hazardous Waste Disposal (million kg)
Hazardous Waste Recycled (million kg)

SOLID WASTE

Solid Waste Generation (million kg)
Solid Waste Disposal (million kg)
Solid Waste Recycled (million kg)

WATER DISCHARGES

Wastewater Discharge (million L)
Wastewater Discharge (million L/billion $)

The 16th Annual EHS Management Forum in Memphis, Tennessee was a great success. The forum gave the Intelex Sales Team an opportunity to catch up with existing clients like NRG, AEP, Danaher, and Tyco Valves and Controls; and a chance to meet with new colleagues and business partners.

Although Intelex representatives have attended NAEM’s EHS Management Forum in years past, this was the first year that we were a platinum sponsor. As a sponsor we had the opportunity to engage in the forum on a new level, which included participating in the Safety portion of the forum program.  Also participating in the Safety Session was Intelex’s client Tyco Valves and Controls. Keith Welch, Tyco’s EHS Manager, presented on “Safety – Best Practices & Emerging Issues.” Keith provided some key insights into the challenges that Tyco Valves and Controls had to consider when they made the decision to switch from a paper-based EHS reporting process to the Intelex web-based EHS Management System. Being that Tyco Valves and Controls has over 12,000 employees in 24 different countries, you can imagine this was no small project.  To learn more about Keith’s presentation, you can submit a request through the Intelex website.

Last week’s environment, health, and safety forum was such a success that we’re already looking for to the next NAEM event “Driving Performance and Cost Savings Through EHS Management Information Systems” on February 19-20, 2009 in Tampa, Florida.  See you there!

 

 

(From left to right: Daniel Marcus-Intelex Account Manager, Keith Welch-Tyco Valves and Controls EHS Manager, Bevin Lyon-Intelex Account Manager)

Bersin and Associates, an Oakland, California based research and advisory firm, recently released the results of a comprehensive survey on employee performance management. The survey revealed several nuggets of wisdom, but the finding that jumped out the most for me was the fact that more than 85% of organizations reported seeing demonstrable positive impact after implementation of a performance management system. That's a pretty impressive satisfaction rate. The survey involved more than 700 respondents, thirty percent of whom were employees of companies in the top 100 of the Fortune 500.

Business Performance Mangement

New Quality Nonconformance Dashboards and Scorecards have been posted on the Intelex-Exchange.  Import them directly into your Intelex System to further streamline your organization's Quality Nonconformance reporting.

DASHBOARDS
Quality Nonconformance Dashboard (1)
Quality Nonconformance Dashboard (2)

SCORECARDS

Configurable Report Scorecards:
Quality Nonconformances by Product - Current Year
Quality Nonconformances by Process - Current Year
Quality Nonconformances – Corrective/Preventive Actions
Closed Quality Nonconformances – Current Year
Quality Nonconformances – Completed Corrective/Preventive Actions
Quality Nonconformances – Corrective/Preventive Actions Next 30 Days
Quality Nonconformances – Corrective/Preventive Actions by Month
Quality Nonconformances – Overdue Corrective/Preventive Actions
Quality Nonconformances – Current Month
Quality Nonconformances by Customer
Quality Nonconformances – Last 90 Days
Quality Nonconformances – Last 90 Days by Department
Quality Nonconformances – Current Year
Quality Nonconformances by Status
Quality Nonconformances by Type and Month – Current Year
Quality Nonconformances – Current vs. Previous Year

Graphical Scorecards:
Quality Nonconformances by Type
Total Quality Nonconformances – Current Year
Quality Nonconformances – Corrective/Preventive Actions
Quality Nonconformance Status – Current Year

Search Component Scorecards:
Quality Nonconformances – Search by Record Number
Quality Nonconformances – Search by Date Reported
Quality Nonconformances – Corrective/Preventive Actions Search by Action Number
Quality Nonconformances – Corrective/Preventive Actions Search by Record Number

Other Scorecards:
Quality Nonconformances – Toolbar Scorecard
Quality Nonconformances – Tab Scorecard
Quality Nonconformances – Task List Scorecard
Quality Nonconformances – Related Reports
Quality Nonconformances – Metric Scorecard

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has recently made a four-part training manual available to use for free on its website. The Powered Industrial Trucks (Forklift) eTool is a resource designed to enhance the safety of employees who operate forklifts. It is not meant to be a replacement for OSHA mandated training. Employers are encouraged to use it as a supplement for any existing truck operator training programs.

The topic of managing environment, quality, and safety business processes under a single management program has become a popular topic in 2008. More and more, organizations are recognizing the reciprocal relationship that each of these business areas has on the other. In a 2008 whitepaper entitled Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Environmental, Health, Safety, and Quality Programs the author uses the following example to illustrate this point:

“… changing a process or procedure in one area without considering the impact on all areas could improve performance where the change is made but actually harm performance in other areas. For instance, replacing a chemical sanitizer in the laundry processes at a hospital with a less-toxic organic alternative might win points in the environmental category, but if the alternative is less effective at sterilizing linens and a spike in infections results, then quality has been diminished.”

Simply put, environment, quality, and safety business processes should never be addressed in isolation of one another. Every organization, regardless of whether it manufactures a product or provides a service, works toward the goal of continuous improvement.  Each business decision presents an opportunity to replace inefficiency with productivity, waste with value, and status quo with leadership.  One of the surest ways to achieve this goal is by implementing an integrated management system specifically designed to drive continual improvement and improve your bottom line across all areas of your business.

You can obtain a copy of the whitepaper mentioned in this post by submitting a request to Intelex.

Hey Blog readers!  With the release of Intelex 5 officially in the books, the Client Relations Team, in addition to posting free Intelex-Exchange content, would like to continue sharing success stories and other interesting musings/developments from the world of Intelex.

Just prior to the release, Project Consultant Devon Ambrose, along with Help Desk Team Lead Jeff Preager, had the opportunity to visit with Kikkoman Foods Inc., in Walworth, Wisconsin for the purpose of conducting on site training.  If you’ve ever used soy sauce in any of your gastronomic culinary experiments, I’m positive Kikkoman is a company you’re familiar with.

Using Intelex’s Environmental and Safety Management Systems, this particular training session focused on Safety Incident Reporting, Document Control, Audit Management, Safety Meetings, Hazards and Risk Assessment, and reporting (Dashboard and Scorecard building). 

Several factors helped make it unique: the most intriguing of which was an Intelex initiative to enhance Help Desk awareness.  By having Jeff actively participate in training, the Help Desk immediately gained a first hand sense of both training requirements and client expectations.  Jeff was also able to form a more personable relationship with Kikkoman representatives, individuals he’s closely communicated with in the past.

Not only did Kikkoman benefit from having two trainers present, this invaluable experience has allowed the Help Desk to more effectively prepare for clients transitioning to ongoing support, something all Intelex clients will benefit from.