Enhancing Our Safety Culture
- The recordable injury and illness incident rate dropped by 13% in 2007.
- Based on performance and achievement of site goals, we recognize one manufacturing site as the EHS Plant of the Year. In 2007, the Abbott Nutrition plant in Cootehill, Ireland, which manufactures Similac and Gain infant nutrition formulas, received this award. Abbott Cootehill achieved a safety performance milestone with a workplace injury rate one-half that of the corporate average. In addition, the plant and its employees are known both locally and regionally for outreach initiatives involving young people and the environment. The facility recycled nearly 60 percent of its total waste volume for the year, contributing to its recognition for leading environmental practices.
Thinking Safely, Acting Safely
We met our 2010 safety goal for Lost Workday Case reduction well ahead of schedule and established a more aggressive target. By the end of 2007, we had achieved a worldwide rate of 0.33 per 100 employees, and now aim to reduce this by an additional 10 percent to a rate of 0.30 per 100 employees.
Historically, traffic accidents have been the most frequent cause of employee injuries. Abbott broadened it's Accidents per Million Miles (APMM) measure for our sales fleet vehicles from a domestic to a global level, and adjusted our 2010 Fleet Accident Rate goal from a 10 percent to a 30 percent reduction based on 2004 levels.
Moving to Zero
Contributing to our success, we have developed Moving to Zero Incidents, a set of behavior-based initiatives which provides employees with tips to promote safety and environmental responsibility in the workplace and at home. We believe that all EHS incidents are preventable and that safety is the responsibility of every manager.
"At Abbott, we want every employee to be able to work safely every day," said Rick Gonzalez, Abbott president and chief operating officer, and sponsor of the safety culture expansion. 'I'm confident that Moving to Zero Incidents will enable us to become the example of the safest global workplace."
Our commitment to Moving to Zero Incidents will be demonstrated through an increased management focus in three major areas:
Increased Communications on Safety
Our communications efforts will include special emphasis on our accomplishments as well as areas for improvement.
Increased Management Safety Observations in the Workplace
Senior management will discuss safety at all employee meetings, and other managers and supervisors will also talk with their staff about EHS on a regular basis. EHS issues affect all employees, whether you are located in the office, laboratory or production plant, or are a sales representative.
Implementation of Business-Specific Safety Actions
These actions will vary depending on the issues in a business unit and the effort necessary to become injury-free. By focusing our efforts, we can prevent injuries from occurring and achieve our vision of zero injuries.
United Kingdom
We piloted a Moving to Zero training program at our diabetes care facility in the United Kingdom. Moving To Zero: Focus on Behaviors includes four behavior-based modules in the workplace as well as a DVD for employees to share safety and environmental awareness with their families. The program uses one of Abbott's core values, Caring, to promote our EHS culture:
- Concentration – Focusing on the task at hand helps reduce injuries and environmental incidents
- Attitude – Understanding the attitude we bring to a task is important; the right attitude translates into action
- Recognition – Heightened awareness enables us to spot an unsafe condition and prevent incidents
- Everyone – Together, through increased awareness of both personal behaviors and recognition of potential hazards, we can enhance our EHS culture both at work and at home
Coyoacan, Mexico
In July 2007, Moving to Zero (Movimiento Cero) was launched at the pharmaceuticals manufacturing site in Coyoacan, Mexico. Plant management outlined EHS guiding principles for all employees and the activities and programs they planned to implement in order to promote and achieve a culture of zero incidents. To emphasize on- and off-the-job EHS awareness, all employees were provided with a take-home magnet with hints for a safe home and a pamphlet with Emergency Response Information.
Expanding our Training Programs
In 2006, Global EHS Training Services offered 290 EHS Web-based and instructor-led training programs, 42 of which were new curricula.
