Workplace safety at MillerCoors

Workplace Safety

     A MillerCoors Safety Moment

How do we prevent employee errors from recurring? After a safety incident, rather than ask what error an employee made, we ask why the employee’s actions made sense at the time. Only then can we discover how our systems contribute to unsafe decisions and how to improve them.

 


MillerCoors safety



improved injury incident rates

At MillerCoors, regulatory compliance is only part of our focus on safety. To maintain high safety standards, we also must engage and empower every person working here to share the responsibility of making our workplace free of injury and illness.
 

Environmental, Health and Safety Leadership

Strong environmental, health and safety leadership is essential to embracing sustainability at all levels of MillerCoors. In November 2011, Chief Executive Officer Tom Long and Chief Integrated Supply Chain Officer Fernando Palacios signed the MillerCoors Environmental, Health and Safety Commitment, which outlines our principles for a safe workplace, responsible citizenship in our communities and good environmental stewardship. We believe that work injuries are preventable, and we engage all of our employees to build a safe working environment.


MillerCoors Safety Council

Professionals from across MillerCoors join together to form our Safety Council, a subcouncil of our Environmental, Health and Safety Council. The Safety Council works to reduce risks to employee health and safety by focusing on regulatory compliance and workplace risk reduction programs. The council’s goals are to:

  • Share information regarding workplace injuries to understand why they occurred and to prevent their recurrence.
  • Comply with regulatory requirements.
  • Address our top risks by developing solutions that work for all of our facilities.


Promoting Workplace Safety

Safety is not only about numbers. Safety is also about caring and trust. In 2011, 49 safety teams worked across 10 facilities to address our attitudes and beliefs regarding safety in the workplace. Our safety teams emphasize this simple point: Every employee shares the responsibility of making MillerCoors safe.

In October 2011, we held our annual Safety Culture Summit, bringing together 160 employees and management team members from all manufacturing locations to report on their progress and enhance their skills.

Our safety teams work to:

  • Partner with leadership to balance the competing needs of production and safety.
  • Inspire employees to share the responsibility of maintaining a safe workplace.
  • Empower employees to speak up, stop work or make a change if they see an unsafe situation.
  • Evaluate how corporate-level decisions, such as new capital projects and packaging materials, can affect workplace safety.


Safety Successes

Our attitudes and beliefs regarding safety in the workplace are successful.

  • Since 2008, our injury rate has dropped 17 percent in lost time and restricted duty cases and 11 percent in total recordable cases.
  • The cost of our workers compensation claims dropped 23 percent, or $1.65 million, between July 2008 and July 2011.
  • We begin every meeting with a safety moment to share safety insights with employees. In 2011, we posted a library of safety alerts and safety moments on MillerCoors intranet. Our goal is to make safety tips more accessible to all employees.
  • Employees have said that because of the MillerCoors safety focus, they have the confidence to step forward and address a safety risk.
  • Our unions cite our safety priority as a model for how we can continue to engage and empower our workforce.
  • In 2011, our DART (days away, restricted or transferred to another position due to injury) rate improved to 1.02 percent, down from 1.16 percent in 2010.


Success in Reducing Winter Slips and Falls in Milwaukee

In Milwaukee, we station barrels of salt at building entrances to encourage employees to share the responsibility of reducing slips and falls on icy walkways. In 2009, a safety team ran a series of employee videos each winter to encourage everyone to spread salt on icy patches. In 2010, as a result of this simple initiative, we completely eliminated slips and falls from ice. In 2011, the safety team revisited this initiative to reinforce our belief that we are all responsible for safety at MillerCoors.


Incidents of Non-Compliance

Our policy is to meet or exceed all laws and regulations governing our business and to protect the safety of our employees, communities and environment. While we did not receive any fines during the April 2, 2011, to March 31, 2012, reporting period, we did have instances of environmental, health and safety non-compliance. We strive to be flawless, but if we do have an instance of noncompliance, we conduct necessary abatement activities.

Learn more about our compliance in 2011.


Growing Our Safety Focus in 2012

We plan to build on our success and expand our safety focus in 2012. We will launch our new safety process at the Fort Worth and Golden Breweries to supplement existing safety processes. We will launch new safety teams at the Irwindale and Shenandoah Breweries, complete process and team health checks at the Irwindale and Eden Breweries and hold dialogues with leadership at the Trenton and Milwaukee Breweries. We will also build internal capability by training safety champions at each brewery and offering continuing safety training through MillerCoors University.