How to Unify Safety Practices Across Your Manufacturing Organization

Better data and analytics, improved access to employees’ perspectives and consistent communication can unify these practices.

• By Marie Anderson
• Dec 21, 2022

Many companies rely on a widely accepted set of best practices to ensure worker safety, especially in industries where processes are relatively standardized. But that’s not always possible in the manufacturing sector, where equipment and workflows vary dramatically not only from company to company but from plant to plant within the same organization.

This variability means manufacturers are often left to identify and implement their own effective safety practices that reduce serious injuries and fatalities. It’s clear that organizations need better processes to protect workers: in 2020 alone, U.S. manufacturers reported more than 300,000 nonfatal workplace injuries, the second highest of any industry.

Despite these challenges, manufacturers owe it to their employees and communities to provide a safe working environment across facilities. Enhancing safety protocols is an ongoing process that requires leveraging safety insights, employee input and enhanced communication to identify areas for improvement—ultimately creating a unified culture of safety. 

Disjointed Internal Processes Complicate Safety Standardization

ISN data shows that perceptions of safety in manufacturing fall below those in sectors like energy—industries that have more standardized processes and technology. But a lack of industry-wide standardization is just one of the barriers holding manufacturers back from bridging safety gaps.

Many manufacturers also lack visibility into their own operations. Most manufacturing organizations track a certain amount of safety-related information captured from sources like inspection records and incident reports. However, this data often is not comprehensive or current enough to provide a complete picture of a facility’s safety culture, which limits its usefulness for decision-making around safety practices.

More specifically, these records often overlook the perspectives of the employees who put safety protocols into practice and instead rely on a singular solution, despite it not being a one-size-fits-all approach. Without the critical information about how employees exercise best practices on the frontlines, management may miss important insights that are essential for improving compliance or revising processes.

Inconsistent work schedules are another challenge for manufacturers. Workers routinely move on and off the production floor, creating knowledge gaps because employees present at different times may receive different safety information and training. It also creates a challenge in ensuring there is a transfer of knowledge on that day’s risks from one crew to the next, such as temporary shutdowns or simultaneous operations in the area.

By collecting and analyzing better data and improving information-sharing, manufacturers lay the groundwork to create standardized safety guidelines in their facilities.

Three Ways to Standardize Safety Processes in your Organization

The implementation of consistent safety practices across your facilities requires better data and analytics, improved access to employees’ perspectives and consistent communication. Here’s how these three factors can unify safety practices across your organization: 

1. Collect comprehensive insights. With high-quality data and analytics, you can uncover unique pain points, identify trends and predict future risks in each plant. It’s important to gather data from multiple sources like internal reviews, contractor management platforms or consultancy firms to develop a complete understanding of safety risks. If you collect real-time safety data, you can access the most up-to-date information on each facility’s performance—making adjustments to your safety protocols as needed.

Pairing this granular data with basic safety information can yield valuable insights. For example, suppose you notice that some plants record more overexertion injuries than others. In response, you take a closer look at day-to-day workflows in the facilities with fewer reported incidents and discover that those plants require employees to take more breaks during their shifts. As a result, you adopt the same safety practice in your other manufacturing facilities, reducing overall injury counts.

2. Assess employee feedback. In addition to deliberate data collection, reviewing employee feedback about safety provides insights that better inform decision-making. For example, you may learn about close calls or near misses that did not merit formal reports, uncovering potential safety gaps. Employee feedback also helps you understand the effectiveness of your safety practices and the missing pieces in your strategy. Just as importantly, soliciting feedback on safety practices can help employees feel heard, fostering a greater sense of belonging in the workplace.

3. Communicate safety standards clearly. You need to ensure each worker receives the most up-to-date safety information, especially since employees constantly rotate on and off the floor. To improve information-sharing, communicate safety-related information in multiple ways like refresher courses, safety updates posted in common areas, periodic safety quizzes and individual/team check-ins.

Not all safety practices are applicable to every workplace task, so be sure to tailor safety training and communication to the needs of specific groups of workers. Ultimately, improved communication keeps everyone on the same page despite variances in processes between facilities—setting the stage for a unified safety culture. 

Although manufacturing may lack the industry-wide safety standardization common in other sectors, it doesn’t mean your company should risk worker safety. By leveraging data-driven insights, employee feedback and effective communication, your organization can identify and implement safety improvements unique to your plants’ operations and equipment. In the process, you’ll develop a more robust safety culture rooted in trust and transparency—protecting your employees now and in the future.