SMI Steel - South Carolina Update
SMI Steel-South Carolina has had their hybrid Behavior-Based Safety Process in place since 2002. Under the leadership of Allen White, Safety Director, SMI-SC created their own "in-house" observation process ("ORO" or Others Reminding Others) in 1999 and in 2002 selected Quality Safety Edge (QSE) to help them enhance their process and capture the best of both ORO and Values-Based Safety® (VBS). Key changes focused on increased positive feedback for safe practices, developing a comprehensive observation checklist, and improving the tracking and use of observation data.
The "ORO Enhanced Process" was kicked off in August 2002. By the end of 2002, SMI Steel-SC was able to achieve an OSHA recordable rate of 1.9 per 200,000 hours, cutting the old rate by 50%, and in October hit One Million Man-Hours without an LTA. In 2003 SMI-SC was ranked #1 in safety among all steel mills in the country. To quote Allen White, Safety Director, "Values-Based Safety® helped us advance our Safety Culture. You can talk about a Safety Culture but until you see people doing it, you don't have it. With VBS we have it!"