"Do it safely or not at all." That is the McWane Way. At McWane Ductile, we are committed to providing a safe work environment for our employees. We promote service excellence, product quality, and integrity and strive to comply with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards. Simultaneously, we continuously improve and build a strong safety culture in our facilities. All these attributes make up who we are, and OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) fundamentals demonstrate our sponsorship of this program. Approval into VPP is the official recognition of outstanding efforts by employers who have achieved exceptional occupational health and safety standards.
Click the play arrow in the image below to watch a video about the McWane Ductile's VPP program.
What Is Voluntary Protection Program?
VPP was established in 1979 to recognize organizations for outstanding health and safety performance. It's a partnership with OSHA involving collaboration among labor, management, and the government to create a safe workplace culture. VPP sites have a Days Away: Restricted; Transferred (DART rate) 52% lower than the national average. The program is assessed using five key components:
- Management Commitment
- Employee Involvement
- Worksite Analysis
- Hazard Prevention and Control
- Health and Safety Training
With all these components, the idea of the program is to point out potential problems and fix them before they become an issue. Providing the necessary resources and teaching hazard prevention techniques is vital to keeping those working in potentially dangerous situations safe.
“I would encourage all companies to get involved. Whether they go through the actual process of becoming a VPP STAR site or not, just evaluating their safety and health management program and really looking at how safety is run at their site will help them improve greatly,” says Melissa Linton - Region Five VPP Manager, OSHA.
What Are The Varying Levels of VPP?
In practice, there are three different levels in the VPP program:
- Demonstration
- Merit
- Star
The VPP Demonstration level is the beginning of the program, allowing OHSA to test safety practices at a facility. The Merit program recognizes employers and employees with good safety and health management systems but needs some improvement to achieve Star status. Merit is the crucial and effective stepping stone to attaining Star status within three years when the site demonstrates the potential and commitment to meet its tailored site goals. One caveat to a Merit site is that they are limited to one 3-year term to commit to achieving Star status unless special circumstances allow for a second term. Onsite Merit evaluations happen every 18-24 months, and compliance is necessary for these status upgrades.
Star is the highest level for exemplary worksites with successful safety and health management systems and low injury and illness rates. Star worksites are self-sufficient in their ability to control workplace hazards. They are reevaluated every 3 to 5 years to keep their star certification, but reviews of incident rates are performed annually. McWane Ductile is Star-compliant across all three New Jersey (MDNJ), Ohio (MDO), and Utah foundries (MDU).
“Our last audit involved about five to six OSHA representatives and compliance officers. They came to the facility and looked for imminent hazards and housekeeping. They interviewed us to make sure we were doing what we said we were doing,” said MDH Union Safety Coordinator Joe Medina.
WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF VPP AT MCWANE DUCTILE?
In 2009, members of the Union at the McWane Ductile Ohio facility visited a VPP site and believed that the program would benefit their own workplace. They brought back the idea and presented it to the company. The company agreed to create a VPP coordinator position to handle the program and increase its effectiveness across each plant we manufacture from. In August 2010, our Ohio foundry became the first plant to receive the prestigious VPP Star Status. Subsequently, in 2012, our Utah foundry achieved the historic goal of VPP Star Status. Following Utah, our New Jersey plant also received the VPP Star Status.
The VPP coordinator at each foundry works with safety and plant managers to keep our Star Status current and shining proudly. Since the program's inception, management has invested millions to maintain safe engineering practices while allowing time and incentives for employees to improve the culture and safety environment.
Our manufacturing locations recently underwent the recertification audit process, and McWane Ductile is Star-compliant across all three New Jersey (MDJ), Ohio (MDO), and Utah (MDU) foundries.
WHY DOES VPP MATTER?
We are incredibly proud to have earned VPP Star Status across all our plants. According to the OSHA.gov website, out of over 8 million worksites in the United States, only approximately 2,000 have achieved the VPP Star status.
The safety culture that has been created allows all employees to have a voice in their safety. It becomes an employee-driven program that incorporates everyone from the bottom up instead of being only compliant. At each facility, ideas are implemented to give employees an additional line of communication with management about safety issues.
“Our ability to have a safe workplace takes everyone's effort and commitment,” says Tom Crawford, VP/GM of McWane Ductile Ohio. Management must be committed to providing resources to fix hazards and continuously improve. Our employees are engaged in sharing safety concerns and working safely.”
Our Ohio facility has Star teams comprising members from various departments and a green hazard tag recognition. The Star members ask their peers about potential safety issues or processes that can be improved upon. The green hazard tag recognition program allows workers to place a bright green tag on an area or item that is a hazard. They fill out the top half of the tag and give the bottom half to their supervisor, who works to correct it.
“Our employees are our subject matter experts. Getting the people who know what's going on to pitch in, provide their ideas, and be heard helped a lot with our overall communication in the plant,” said Jim Wright, MDO Melting Supervisor
In the McWane Ductile Utah (MDU) facility, each member of the safety department does a weekly walkthrough of the foundry. The safety department rotates areas weekly and gives employees direct access to voice concerns. MDU also holds events like Joint Safety Committee meetings and Continuous Improvement (CI) activities to help employees and management improve safety across the plant.
"We schedule daily start-up meetings to discuss relevant safety topics and interact with the employees regarding unsafe issues and good safety habits. We also continue to perform necessary housekeeping and preventative maintenance tasks to help mitigate potential environmental risks," says McWane Ductile Utah VPP Coordinator Michael Pacanos.
"Knowing that a site is VPP certified provides me confidence that the company cares," says Pacanos. "We are exposed to many hazards here, and what we do can be very dangerous, so I thank McWane Ductile for striving for this accolade!"
At McWane Ductile, we are committed to the safety of our employees. Since the VPP program has been implemented, injuries have decreased dramatically. Our injuries and incidents have been 25-50% lower than the industry standards. Being the best of the best, customers and contractors know that when they use our product, it is produced by a company that takes pride in the safety of its workers.
The ability to perform our operations within a safe and certified environment is our goal, and the amount of gratitude for living these practices is unimaginable. "McWane Ductile takes safety with the utmost seriousness. That's why it's one of our McWane Way compass points. Safety. Right? So, we want to ensure that we keep our employees safe from harm and that they go home the same way they came to work," Eladio Quinones, MDNJ Safety Manager.
“Since the implementation of VPP, we have created a safer work environment here at McWane Ductile Utah. The VPP program has enabled us to have a direct line of communication between management and employees. Through the promotion of the Voluntary Protection Program, we have established an iron-strong camaraderie that will last for generations to come, “says Luis Jimenez, McWane Ductile Utah VPP Coordinator.
McWane Ductile continues to be an industry leader in health and safety throughout the water and wastewater industry and offers multiple services that extend far beyond our manufacturing Ductile iron pipe, such as educating water professionals through Lunch and Learns and Days of Water.
Just recently, our corporate IH manager, Mickey Hannum, taught the Special Government Employee class for the Region II Voluntary Protection Program Participants Association (VPPPA). This class was one of the many resources offered by the VPPPA. It outlined the educational support and networking needs for its members to continue striving to achieve a more robust culture of safety excellence. If you would like to learn more about becoming a VPP Star-recognized site, please visit OSHA.gov or feel free to contact us.
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