Safety
Safety Performance
Our commitment to employees' health and safety is absolute. It is our company's top priority. To that end, we intend to create an environment with zero incidents. One measure we use to monitor our health and safety performance is the recordable incident rate. Our target is to reduce our recordable incident rate to less than 1—that is, fewer than one recordable injury or illness per 100 employees per year. In 2006, our RIR was 1.67, the lowest in our history and among the best in our industry.
We also set a target to reduce our lost-workday rate to less than 15. This rate measures the severity of injuries. In 2006, our lost-workday rate was 21.37.
While we have not met our targets, through active, visible leadership and engaged employees, we have made improvements in our recordable incidents, lost-time injuries and days lost, year over year. We reduced the number of recordable incidents in 2006 by 29 percent compared with 2005. The number of our manufacturing facilities without a lost-time injury in 2006 increased to 68.5 percent. Lost-time injuries fell by 35 percent, and lost workdays declined by 45 percent year over year. And we have not suffered any employee fatalities since February 2005 (as of October 2007).
The heart of our safety program is to ensure that managers and employees understand what both the law and the company require of them, and have the knowledge and tools to succeed. We have developed eight online training programs for safety topics such as fall protection, ergonomics and hearing conservation. Employees have completed more than 4,800 online safety-related training courses. We continue to expand our online safety training.
Employees' health and safety and reducing our RIR are integral components of our Roadmap for Success. See our health and safety policy for more information.
Fatalities
It is not acceptable to Weyerhaeuser that any person lose his or her life while working for us. Regrettably, we experienced three on-the-job fatalities in 2006. All three were contractors-a tractor operator in Uruguay, a Maracay Homes subcontractor in Phoenix, Ariz., and a crane operator in Pine Hill, Ala.
Each fatality is reviewed by the senior management team after a thorough investigation. Lessons learned from the investigations are communicated to the entire company and recommendations implemented.
Injury Analysis
- 27%
- Percentage reduction in injuries to fingers, arms and hands in 2006
- 100%
- Percentage of senior vice presidents who personally visited at least one "safety focus unit" in 2006
The most common types of recordable injuries sustained in 2006 were:
- Fractures, cuts and bruises to hands, fingers and lower arms (28 percent)
- Strains and sprains to backs and shoulders (26 percent)
Employee behaviors that most frequently contributed to incidents were failure to follow safe work procedures, pay attention to one's surroundings, and maintain the correct position for the task.
The most frequent root causes of recordable incidents were:
- Work standards or procedures
- Management systems
- Engineering or design
Areas of focus for reducing injuries in 2007 include:
- Preventing injuries to fingers, hands and arms. This type of injury decreased by 27 percent in 2006 over 2005 levels, due to prevention efforts.
- Recognizing and promoting the efforts that improve employee safety.
- Learning from sites that use a focused approach to manage the key sources of their injuries and from businesses that use a disciplined approach to return-to-work programs.
Senior Management Team Focus Units
Committed leadership is an essential part of our safety progress. Following this principle, every member of our senior management team in 2006 personally visited one or more of 25 "safety focus" operations—those identified as being in greatest need of improved performance. The visits were in addition to routine visits to operations under their direction.
Each daylong visit included:
- A walk-through inspection
- Interviews with employees
- A review of the unit's safety improvement plan
The results are promising. The visited operations reduced their recordable incident rate by an average of 52 percent compared with 2005. The severity of injuries declined by 69 percent as measured by the days-away case rate. The program continues, with visits to 19 sites planned for 2007.
