Podcast: How EHS leaders are using date to keep workers safer

Emily Cash is the director of global EHS and regulatory compliance for medical device manufacturer Tecomet. Emily is experienced in safety, security, and emergency management, along with numerous agency regulations. She's a former OSHA compliance officer who has maintained working relationships to stay current on monitoring the regulatory environment. Emily recently spoke with Dave Blanchard, editor in chief of EHS Today, about the new digital demands of compliance and efficiency that manufacturing companies are trying to deal with and also the role that connected data and systems can play in helping safety professionals better manage EHS.

Below is an excerpt from the podcast:

EHST: Let's talk a little bit about data, because that's kind of what we want to focus in on. So, I'll just start with a quick question. Quick question, but maybe not quick answer. What role does data play in your EHS program?

EC: It plays a large role in our EHS program. So, I think that when I started in EHS, we didn't look as much at things like leading indicators. We really depended on lagging data: last month’s incident rate, last month’s significant near misses, things like that. I think that data is taking on a much larger role in EHS because now, if we have so many near misses and then we have so many first aids, it's more likely that we're going to have this type of recordable. So, I really think that, whenever we look at our data, if we can look at it in real time and see what those leading indicators are, we could prevent an actual recordable or lost time injury.

EHST: I talk to a range of safety people from those who are extremely sophisticated and knowledgeable about all the technologies that they can be using to those who are asking, “Where do I start with this stuff?” So, the first big question would be how do you collect data, and what kind of data are you collecting? And then how do you manage it?

EC: I would say, like other manufacturers, we struggle with technology. We keep some stuff in shared spreadsheets. We keep some things on SharePoint. We have an EHS data management system, but other things tie into that as well. So, we have a lot of different operating systems as well as prehistoric spreadsheets that we all struggle to find.

EHST: So, given that as your situation, how do you get that data into a format where you can actually manage it and get some actionable insights? The whole idea behind data is you can collect it until infinity. There's always going to be more data. But how do you take the kernels, the little nuggets? Do you use an AI-based program, or how does that work for your company?

EC: So, we have EHS management software that we use that'll track things like near misses, incidents, things like that. And then, on the other side, we have spreadsheets that we share, which kind of dig a little bit deeper into things like, what are your top five trending near misses. We also incorporate things like layered auditing based on those leading indicators of near misses. So we've really tried to concentrate in real time, and this has been a huge struggle. It's very, very tedious, but what we started doing is we started looking at near misses. We've started trending those near misses and actually implementing layered auditing. And the way that we do that is we use one system to track it, we use one system to tally it, and then we use a whole other system to send out these inspection forms to do our layered auditing. So, it's really kind of piecemealed together. Definitely not ideal, but it's something that we as an EHS industry have struggled with. Piecemealing data and trying to make it make sense across multiple platforms is always a struggle.

EHST: How would you characterize the value that collecting and then managing and then getting the results of the data has helped you? In what ways can you now look at it and say, “Hey, this is helping us with our compliance process” or “It's helping us actually know and better predict when an accident could occur.” What are some of the takeaways from doing it this way?

EC: So, our near misses will likely provide us with our leading indicators of the current environment at the facility to try to prevent something before it happens. So near miss data is huge. I also think that whenever we look at things like managing workers’ compensation costs, if we have that data and we can look at year over year. One thing that we really looked at this year is we said, “Well, we're kind of trending the same with our number of recordables and things that we have going on. Are we getting better?” Well, another portion of data that's really, really beneficial is to look at our workers’ compensation costs. So, our workers’ compensation costs compared to last year are less than a quarter. We're having far less serious injuries. We might be having the same injuries, but we also might have increased reporting, awareness, and people are more comfortable to talk about what happened, things like that.

About the Podcast
Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast offers news and information for the people who make, store and move things and those who manage and maintain the facilities where that work gets done. Manufacturers from chemical producers to automakers to machine shops can listen for critical insights into the technologies, economic conditions and best practices that can influence how to best run facilities to reach operational excellence.