Side 6
SAFETY | EXCELLENCE TAKING THE PULSE ON OUR SAFETY ACTIONS From challenges to success stories – Connect reached out to our manufacturing facility managers in three different Trelleborg sites in three cor- ners of the world, to learn how they work with safety aware- ness and how the ‘Team Up + for Safety’ initiative has made a difference in their locations. TEXT MARK DRAKE Bob Nichols, General Manager, Trelleborg Sealing Solutions, Northborough, Massachusetts, US “Our layered and compression-molded seals are handmade and labor-intensi- ve, which has led to challenges, such as lacerations and lifting injuries. Embedding Safety@Work principles into the new Manufacturing Excellence Roadmap pro- cess has made a significant change, because it lets employees take ownership of resol- ving their safety issues with management support. We reduced lost workdays to zero in 2021, but above all our employees have become empowered and feel responsible for their own safety. 6 | connect Nr 1 2022 Bob Nichols A pivotal moment happened when an operator stopped performing an operation that felt unsafe, even though the parts were due to ship. The cell lead was supportive and shut down the process, and the tooling was modified with a guard so that work could resume the next day. We knew we had turned the corner – that the people who understand the operations best are now putting safety first, for themselves and others.”
Side 7
SAFETY | EXCELLENCE Liene Giertmane-Done Liene Giertmane-Done, Plant Manager, Trelleborg Wheel Systems, Liepaja, Latvia “Our steel processing and manufacturing involves contact with powerful machinery and risk-filled handling of the huge wheels we produce. The challenge isn’t implemen- ting safety rules, but rather maintaining a high safety standard daily. ‘Team Up for Safety’ reminds us how important that is, and it pushes us to raise the bar. A safety workshop for all site employees helped us to open up discussions about daily issues and turn concerns into solutions. Since then, our employees are more confi- dent about identifying unsafe behaviors or workplaces. We use a red tag system, where anyone who observes an unsafe situation can submit a red card describing the risk. Having received 15 red tags in 2020, we increased to 26 red tags in 2021. And we won’t stop there. We welcome each tag as an opportunity to increase our safety stan- dard and further our progress!” further improved our safety awareness. In addition to conducting Safety@Work training for new employees, we now have safety talks prior to every shift changeover. The learning from past incidents is clearly communicated, and we now update our risk assessments as part of the incident review process. I’m convinced that the increased dialog around safety will lead to even better results.” Santhosh Shastry, Plant Manager, Trelleborg Industrial Solutions, Bangalore, India “Our biggest challenge has been sustaining the safety culture developed across our site, where things like a two-roll mill operation poses special concerns. Safety@Work has helped us keep lost work cases at zero for three years, for example, through daily safety inspections that identify and mitigate potential hazards. ‘The ‘Team Up for Safety’ initiative has Santhosh Shastry PURCHASING | EXCELLENCE Why indirect spend matters Within purchasing, indirect spend refers to spend with external suppliers on products and services that are not part of the products we sell. Such examples are office supplies, logistics and facility management. “About one-third of the Trelleborg Group spend is on such items, which is always a surprise to many colleagues I speak to,” says Philipp Gerstenberg, Group Purchasing Excellence Manager. During 2021, the Trelleborg Purchasing Excellence Board initiated the “Indirect Spend Optimization Project.” “Knowing the impact we can have through efficiently sour- cing our indirect spend, we wanted to strengthen our pur- chasing organization and give all Trelleborg entities access to best practice toolboxes to run successful sourcing,” says Philipp, who was the overall project lead. The focus is on Trelleborg’s largest indirect spend catego- ries, such as energy, logistics, property, as well as mainte- nance, repair, and operations (MRO). By consulting with internal and external experts, comprehensive toolboxes are now in place, accessible to everyone in Trelleborg. According to Philipp, they have also been successfully tested in pilot projects during the second half of 2021, creating approximately 1 million EUR in savings. “Based on what has already been achieved, we expect that local sourcing projects, will, by themselves, easily exceed such saving levels during 2022.” Want to know more? Contact Philipp Gerstenberg or visit the Group Purchasing T-Talk site for more information. + Nr 1 2022 connect | 7
