NOT A SINGLE TON WILL BE PRODUCED AT THE EXPENSE OF SAFETY
Safety is a strategic focus to condition our behaviour. The safety of personnel at Kerneos and their working conditions are equally as fundamental as the economic success of the company.
Kerneos’ Safety Committee has drawn up a global safety plan, which is adopted and applied by each site, and which is monitored using warning indicators.
This plan is based on the following principles:
1. All accidents can be avoided, even in an environment that is not without danger.
2. Nothing should take priority over safety.
3. Each person is responsible not only for their own Safety but also for that of others who are present.
These principles are supported by the following actions:
Implementation of procedures
In an environment where our level of activity is constantly changing, the dynamic risk assessment method allows us to identify and quantify the emergence of new risks, to analyse them in order to determine their causes and propose solutions designed to eliminate them or, failing this, to anticipate them and limit their effects. A dynamic risk assessment is systematically carried out in the case of new facilities, and is re-evaluated periodically for existing facilities.
At Kerneos, dynamic risk assessment is combined with the establishment and use of an electronic permit-to-work.
Accident reports
Accidents and incidents form the subject of precise reports. Every accident, as well as all significant incidents, should form the subject of detailed analyses using “cause trees”, which should result in the implementation of corrective, technical or behavioural actions.
Audits
During safety audits, which are conducted regularly on the various sites, the rapid and direct observation of personnel at work, as well as the quality of dialogue between auditors and personnel, enables corrective actions, the majority of which are not of technical nature but actually relate to behaviour or organisational systems, to be implemented.
In 2009, more than 8,000 safety audits were conducted on the various Kerneos sites around the world.
Communication
Constant communication with the sites, relayed via the network of safety coordinators, provides personnel with regular information on various safety-related topics: regulations and internal rules, monitoring indicators, safety days, etc.
Kerneos’ safety policy forms part of the broader framework of MATERIS’ strategy in this area.
