Driving Your Safety Program to achieve! Plan-Do-Check-Act

Driving your Safety Program to achieve Goals & Objectives is a TEAM effort

Leadership is the ability of a single individual, through their actions to motivate others to higher levels of achievement ~author unknown

PDCA (plan–do–check–act or plan–do–check–adjust) is an iterative four-step management method used in business for the control and continuous improvement of processes and products. It is also known as the Deming circle/cycle/wheel

Plan - Where do you want to be?

  Policies, Procedures, Goals/Objectives/Action Plan,Measurements,Recognition for employees

• The Plan should reflect ways to IMPROVE your Safety Performance (TRC/DART Injury rates).
• The Goals/Objectives/Action Plans must reflect Responsibility & Accountability & Measurements of the activities that will get you where you want to be.
• Develop safety activities to identify and correct hazards, conduct regular inspections and toolbox safety talks to keep safety at the forefront of everyone's mind, then you will start meeting your Goals and Objectives.
• The Safety Recognition must be linked to achieving the Annual Goals and Objectives. Link the measurements and the recognition to what you are doing (safety activities like inspections, observations, toolbox safety talks, stepping up and taking initiative without being told to do something), not to what isn't happening.

Do - What needs to be done to get there?

•  Identify Hazards
• Organize safety activities (Inspections, JSA Reviews, TBT, Daily JSA)
• Report hazards, close call/near miss, accidents

Check - What is working and what is not?

Inspections and audits, Measure performance (Inspections, JSA Reviews, TBT, Daily JSA), Investigate close call/near miss, accidents

• People don’t do what you EXPECT, they do what you INSPECT. Inspections should be done in EVERY area at least weekly-Identifying and correcting hazards which will reduce or eliminate potential for an employee to have an injury.  If you are not finding hazards, you aren't looking very hard!
• Safety Audits: What gets measured gets done. What gets' recognized gets done well! If you do not measure what you are doing to meet your goals, you will not know if you are improving or getting worse. Immediate recognition gets immediate results!!
• Don’t bring a problem without a solution”, Employees are encouraged to report hazards or close call/near miss incidents so the company can investigate and reduce potential for more serious injuries But with a twist-"bring your ideas for solutions too". 

Act - Are you improving safety performance?

Review performance of activities

o  Review accident rates

o  Learn from results, Act on lessons learned and adjust the plan.  Start from the beginning to ensure you cover all the necessary aspects of changes you need to make

Author: Deborah Grow, Safety Specialist

Private Safety Consultant, assistant Damon Fall Protection and Coordinator EHS Network ~ Kansas.  Extensive safety experience in General Industry, Construction, D.O.T. Compliance, and OSHA consultation project.  Contact Deborah if you would like to schedule a consultation

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