Page 61 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

hundred reported per year.4 And out of one hun- dred near-misses, we take significant action on five to ten of them. That may not sound like a lot but it’s five to ten more than in 2017 when we didn’t do anything because we didn’t even know they were happening.”
According to Jeff Goggin, president of PT&SG5 who was on the Accountability Team, “in S.T.A.R.T. we learned that there’s a ten to one ratio when it comes to reportable incidents. For every lost-time incident that occurs, there’s been at least ten near-misses.” So, what constitutes a near-miss? They can be large or seemingly insig- nificant, but the commonality is that an employee just missed injury. It can be a ballpoint pen on the floor that could make someone slip. It could be a barrel full of oil up on a forklift pallet that wobbles but doesn’t quite fall off. It could be a blocking is- sue where the hydraulics fail, and the block doesn’t hold. It could be an extension cord stretched across an aisle-way, or a rollup shop door partially opened that could fall on someone’s head. Thirty or forty years ago, people would just tell you to get a life.
But things have changed since then. Society has changed. Our culture has changed. Peterson now views every potential incident as a lesson on how we can improve and keep people safe.
TRACK FORMS
One of the most impactful accountability initia- tives hit the shops in January 2020—the TRACK form, or job hazard analysis sheet (JHA). “We’ve done different versions in the past but we finally got what we think is a great template,” says Carr. “It’s a documented version of thinking through what you’re going to do before you do it. You have to write down your task, what the potential haz- ards are, and what you’re going to do to make sure you don’t get hurt.”The form takes five or ten min- utes to complete and gets attached to the machine in plain sight.
“As we started introducing the newer, younger group of people into our shops, we realized that we needed a way to help them think through the
NEAR-MISS
A near-miss means no one got hurt, and no on-the-job time was lost, but the potential for injury was clearly present. Near-misses are learning op- portunities that yield insight into how to do it differently the next time.
Power Systems truck shop team in November 2004
4 Figure includes data for 2018, 2019 and 2020.
5 Peterson’s Technology Service Group (PT&SG) includes SITECH and BuildingPt. Pacific. Goggin took on its leadership as president in July 2020.
CHAPTER 4 | 59