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!"
In 2004 SMI Steel-South Carolina recognized their five ORO-VBS Trainers with the mill's first "Passion for Excellence" award. Passion for Excellence is for recognition of individuals who contribute to the overall goal of Safety, Quality, Cost, Profitability, Environment and Efficiency. The ORO-VBS Trainers were recognized for their Outstanding Performance, Dedication and PASSION for Continuous Improvement in Safety.
Also in 2004, the South Carolina Chapter of ASSE (Association of Safety Engineers) recognized Allen White as "Safety Professional of the Year". Allen is highly respected throughout the State for his contributions in safety and a number of State Safety Health and Environmental initiatives have been spawned through his efforts. Based on Allen's presentations to professional safety organizations, South Carolina is currently looking at introducing Behavior-Based Safety in several of its municipalities. SMI-SC's current OSHA recordable rate is at 2.8 with one LTA. Congratulations to SMI on your commitment to continuous safety improvement!!