Safety is #1 priority: JV reached 10 years with no lost time incidents

Since 1975, JV Manufacturing has made safety the#1 priority, all while also producing thousands of carbide dies and stamping millions of parts for many customers. JV is proud to set the industry standard in all that they do, and now more than ever, the management team is embracing more safety initiatives to increase personnel safety as well as process efficiencies.  The leadership team at JV doesn’t just talk about safety being their #1 priority, but they live to prove it daily.

Leading by example, safety issues are brought about within the shop. All employees are held accountable to close those gaps and make the corrective action sustainable. At JV Manufacturing, the issues aren’t just pointed out, but solutions are brought forward to make sure hazards are mitigated. Elimination, substitution and isolation of hazards are considered before suggesting a quick fix (like personal protective equipment (PPE)).  The leadership team also empowers the employees at JV by giving their employees the tools, resources and authority to make sure any hazards are addressed.

The team is implementing employee-driven safety programs as well as fully supporting and actively participating in the safety committee which recently received state approval. Purchasing sound enclosures, doing industrial hygiene sampling, purchasing additional lockout tagout equipment to supplement current processes, increasing machine guarding and updating old guarding with newer technologies are just some of the examples of how the JV Manufacturing management team is pushing safety to a new and more proactive level.

“We have created a safety culture that has become a standard. There is something rewarding about watching a team come together for the better of others, to us that is success.” – Ryan Vecchi

Utilizing proactive measures to address safety hazards before they become safety issues, JV has reached 10 years with no lost time incidents. This is an older culture mindset, so JV has decided to “reset” the clock and start tracking hours since the last recordable, not specifically OSHA lost time recordables.  Because management realizes the benefits of looking at leading indicators, they can track how well the company is preventing incidents and accidents.  Leading indicators that will be tracked include safety training being completed on time, near misses, safety inspections being conducted, items from safety inspections being corrected and amount of time it takes to correct them, maintenance work orders associated with safety and how long it takes to complete them.