Transcript

Colin:

Welcome to Connected, a podcast about the operations and the people that make up Chamberlain Group.

On this episode, in recognition of US National Safety Month, we're taking a trip around the world and speaking with local leaders on how safety resonates within their environment. We'll also discuss topics for improvement and what it really means to establish a strong safety culture, starting with a gentleman who's more passionate about safety than anyone I know.

Jorge Palacio:

My name is Jorge Palacio and I am the Senior Vice President for Global Manufacturing Operations.

Colin:

Tell me a little bit about some of the other positions you've held at Chamberlain Group before this one.

Jorge Palacio:

Well, I was responsible for the Nogales site and now I am responsible for the Nogales site, indirectly for the rest of the manufacturing sites, as well as the environmental health and safety, and the quality functions globally.

Colin:

I want to ask first, there are obviously a lot of different ways that safety can be regarded within a company culture, but tell me a little bit about how Chamberlain Group regards our safety.

Jorge Palacio:

Well, within Chamberlain, we have our values, and the way that we think about safety and quality, we put it under passion. We have to be passionate about caring for our people in terms of safety, and caring for our customers as it relates to quality. So we decided that putting the values of safety and quality under passionate was the right thing for Chamberlain.

Colin:

Yeah, I think so too. So tell me a little bit about the different environments within Chamberlain Group that we need to regard safety.

Jorge Palacio:

Yes. The most common one, or the one that has the most common sense for people is the manufacturing facilities. And the manufacturing facilities, we start in terms of size, with Nogales, Nogales at the height of the post-COVID pandemic, we had as many as 7,000 employees under one roof. It's a small city inside. Anyone that has been to the facility, in my case, it took me the first month to even know where things were.

Colin:

I say it's the size of Disneyland typically whenever anybody asks.

Jorge Palacio:

It is, but it is a small city with a lot of movement. It's a tremendous amount of material being moved and people moving. We have different processes in Nogales, we have metal stamping and injection molding. We have powder coat paint, we have final assembly. We have confined spaces. Imagine all the maintenance that needs to happen to all the types of equipment. So the only way to be safe in a plant that size is to make sure that everyone has safety behavior.

Juan :

Hi, my name is Juan Bernardo Di Garcia, I'm a journeyman here in [inaudible 00:03:18], I'm also a safety leader here in the Nogales Plant. Basically, what we do here at Chamberlain, we machinate all the gauges, fixtures, and we help automation too.

Colin:

Where does safety come in, in your day-to-day at the plants?

Juan :

Here in Nogales, safety is our first thing to happen during the day. I have 10 years working with the company and from the beginning of my first day we always were talking about safety. Actually, in our area, we have had more than eight years with no accidents.

Colin:

Eight years, no accidents? Wow.

Juan :

Yeah, eight years with no accident in [inaudible 00:03:59], which is a very, very risky area.

Colin:

Why do you think you've managed to go eight years without an accident?

Juan :

What I think changed is the whole project. I mean, the manager is very involved, the supervisors are totally involved with people. We talk about safety every day. We check with our people how they're working. If something is wrong with the machine, we stop it. I think the culture changed a lot.

Jorge Palacio:

It is very important for us as employees to understand that the company cares for us, that the leadership in the company feels and practices that safety is the number one priority. When we as employees see that, it allows us to start changing our behavior and making sure that we have the decision-making power to stop a line if there's an unsafe practice. And those are some of the things that, throughout the years, have been implemented and changed in Nogales.

Colin:

I've heard that you guys, at least once a week, you have a five-minute talk where you stop production and I believe safety is one of the things that you discuss. Is that right?

Juan :

Yeah, it happens every Thursday. Safety is the first topic. We talk about anything that happened during the last week and we find out what happened. So we pass all the information to everybody in the plant, not only the area who was involved with. It's different topics like safety guards, don't close the hallways, what to do in a fire. The personal protection equipment they need to use, that's very important too.

Jorge Palacio:

One of the things that Nogales does as part of these celebrate and recognize the good behavior in terms of safety, it's to recognize every year that a particular area has had no accidents. I remember a couple of years ago, a few years ago that we were celebrating the metal stamping area in its fourth or fifth year with zero accidents.

I remember one of the metal stamping operators that has been with the company, long-tenured, and he had lost a couple of fingers in an accident in a machine in the company 25 years earlier. And when he stood up and he said that he wanted to say some words and he was extremely emotional on how he really took safety after that incident. And I was so extremely proud on how the company and his area in particular had achieved a safety change in culture and behavior and equipment and even more important in results, that it stuck with me, someone that had a firsthand experience on an unsafe practice and how that area completely turned around. Those are some of the things that really motivate me to keep focusing on safety every single day.

Colin:

As part of a recent organizational change, we are making an effort to standardize our safety practices and metrics across the entire company, including our sister organizations such as Systems LLC.

Jorge Palacio:

Systems was acquired, they had two facilities, one in [inaudible 00:07:47], the other one in Germantown, Wisconsin. They may be smaller in size, but the type of processes also requires us to have very high safety standards for our employees.

Mark:

My name is Mark Robel. I'm Vice President of Operations. I've been with Systems for 33 years. We are a manufacturer of loading docks that are supplied to warehouses and retail and distribution centers. The best way to look at it is like does everything you own in life comes across the dock leveler at some point in its travels to the store directly to you.

Colin:

Tell me a little bit about how safety is factored into your day.

Mark:

I'll put it to you like this. The work we do is very dangerous. You're welding, so you have sparks flying all over the place. Fire prevention is at the top of our list. The next biggest thing is the product we build is large and heavy. As I mentioned, some of the products can be 7 feet wide by 12 feet tall. They can weigh anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 pounds or more. There is a lot of opportunity in what we do to get hurt. So safety is number one here. It comes before anything else. We have team meetings every day to keep safety in front of everybody. Obviously, training is a big part of safety culture here. Hazard detection, near misses, investigation. Anything we do, safety is the first consideration, whether it's a project, whether it's maintenance, or anything else,

Jorge Palacio:

They were always safety conscious as well. What we're doing recently, starting to standardize the practices, the metrics, learn from each other, and share whatever works in one area we're shamelessly copying and implementing in the other.

Mark:

Within the last couple of months, Chamberlain rolled out an official reporting system, whether it's a near miss or serious incident. So they have a very detailed reporting system.

Colin:

Okay, so this is fairly new for Systems then?

Mark:

The past couple of months, absolutely, yes.

Colin:

How's that been going?

Mark:

It's been going great. It's given us clearer definition as to what category something should fall into. There were things we are categorizing as near misses that really wouldn't be categorized now as a near miss, and there were things that should be classified as a serious incidents that wouldn't have been classified as serious before. So it's given us clarity in our reporting.

Jorge Palacio:

So Systems, now we're taking them to a standardized level with the rest of the manufacturing sites. We're even evaluating the amount of resources that are existing to maintain the system. We expanded the organizational structure to implement those standards.

Mark:

So two months ago we hired our first safety specialist. We never had one. The responsibility was pretty much shared between the management team. Having a full-time person on the floor dedicated to safety, dedicated to coaching the supervisors and team members has been night and day for us. It's really making a difference and that's probably the number one thing I'm excited about, just having someone 24/7 dedicated to the safety.

Jorge Palacio:

Our smaller facility in Gosford, Australia, even though it's small, it still has the same requirements for safety. Australia as a country, as a culture, I think in my experience, it's years ahead of other regions in the world in terms of energy usage, safety. So anything regarding to EHS? So the Australian plant has since many years ago, started implementing the zero harm policy for them.

Colin:

Tell me a bit more about that.

Speaker 5:

Hi, I'm Graham [inaudible 00:11:33], Operations Director for Australia, New Zealand, Middle East. Yeah, so at the Gosford manufacturing plant, predominantly we're making commercial operators under the Grifco brand. We manufacture our own gearboxes, which is unique to the Chamberlain business, and we do final assembly of all of our operators. So bolting the electronics, the motor, and the gearbox together.

Colin:

What sort of work environment do you oversee?

Speaker 5:

In the factory, we do have a lot of machinery, CNC machinery, plastic injection molding machines, forklifts driving around. So there is a lot of heavy machinery about that requires you to be focused every minute of the day.

Colin:

That sounds like a lot of the same manufacturing hazards that they have to worry about in our larger Nogales plant as well.

Speaker 5:

It is similar, yes, yes, definitely similar.

Yeah, so our local motto is zero harm. In Australia, we call it mate looking after mate, and that is every employee getting home safely every single day. So zero harm was born in 2017 as we looked to improve our safety culture. So we came up with a slogan that meant something to us, branded it on everyone's safety vests. It's the first thing we talk about every day. You'll see the zero harm logo on presentations up in the factory. The whole company believes it. So top management push safety down and then the shop floor will push safety up. So everyone believes in the same philosophy of everyone getting home safely every single day.

Colin:

How have your safety metrics been?

Speaker 5:

So before zero harm, so going back to 2015 and 2016, we did have a couple of minor accidents. And that's what really spurred us on that we had to be better and we had to take this seriously. So zero harm 100% improved our safety culture and we went over two years across the Australian New Zealand business without an incident. So that was a huge success.

Colin:

From what I'm hearing from all the conversations that I've been having with safety leads, supervisors, operation managers, is that everybody has to be on board with that safety philosophy, or else it just doesn't work.

Speaker 5:

That's correct. Yeah. Everyone has to believe it. Everyone has to look out for each other. It's not something that you just say, it's something that you truly believe in and I think that's what makes the difference.

Jorge Palacio:

The goal should be zero accidents, zero harm, and we'll build everything around it to ensure that we have the highest probability. Redundant systems, checks, balances, to avoid any harm. One could argue that instilling a philosophy like that, it's easier with 50 people than 7,000 people, and maybe so. But it starts at the leadership and the Australian leadership has always instilled that philosophy in their site.

Colin:

What are some opportunities for improving safety further in your work environment?

Speaker 5:

So we have a lot of other leading indicators to see how safety's going each day, and one of the main ones would be hazard identification. So we have a target where we want to see a certain number of identifications of safety improvements each month. Other ways we measure safety is just through our daily safety toolbox talks, our forklift and mobile plant checks, and also throughout our success audits in our factories and warehouses.

Jorge Palacio:

When we move to the next area, talking about the distribution centers, distribution centers are warehouse-type areas where we have forklift pallet jacks, we have moving equipment, and moving people. It's the other area operationally that people think about safety.

Afrodita Corella:

My name is Afrodita Corella. I started at Tucson Distribution Center back in 2020. I am a supervisor at Chamberlain. My responsibility basically is safety, compliance, and training through all DCs.

Colin:

Through all DCs?

Afrodita Corella:

Exactly. So we are part of the supply chain. We are so close to the border, that means so close to the Nogales facility. They produce the product and we receive that product. We are doing put away, put it on the racks and after packing the product, according the orders that we receive. So from here, we can ship directly to the end customer, we can ship to retailers, or we can ship to other distribution centers.

Colin:

What are some concerns with safety that people have to be conscious of at the DC?

Afrodita Corella:

So for example, people driving a forklift and not making the stops sometimes, so that can create an incident or give us an incident there. Also, lately, for example, I don't know if you know, but we had one, just one recordable incident at the distribution center and it was because somebody were lifting a product and not following the steps.

Colin:

Could you tell me how safety is regarded in your facility?

Afrodita Corella:

Yes. At the distribution center you know we must achieve products. We have a new slogan that we started using, and it's already on the T-shirts. We are creating a huge campaign through the distribution centers. Deliver the promise safely.

Colin:

I see those T-shirts are already making their way around and they're bright, fluorescent green, so they're easy to stick out and get everybody visible too.

Afrodita Corella:

Exactly. You cannot miss that T-shirt.

Colin:

No.

Afrodita Corella:

You can see it from far, far away. So if you feel that you are not safe or you can get hurt or you can hurt somebody else, we must raise the hands and say, "Hey, I cannot keep doing this because this can happen." Even if that is an urgent treatment that we must do, we must be safe to do that. First comes safety, after that is quality, and after that is productivity, in that order.

Colin:

That's great.

Jorge Palacio:

So in this journey of standardizing and benchmarking all the EHS and safety practices, we brought the European brothers and sisters into the fold and we learned that they have a person that wears multiple hats, and that's okay. It does not require a particular person responsible for safety only, but if you have an owner for the standards, the benchmarks, it just allows for easier communication and standardization. And our European colleagues are definitely working on bringing their practices to standard and I can say that they were in the good path of reaching it before we even started standardizing.

Speaker 7:

Hi my name is [inaudible 00:19:13], I am the Director of Customer Operations in our European facility. I'm with Chamberlain for 17 years now and I'm leading our customer service area as well as our supply chain and our full operation team. In Europe, we are more or less serving the central European market. So we have a very strong footprint in the Scandinavian region with LiftMaster, where we have a lot of container customers. And then also we have our retail business where we are very strong within the German market, but also France and the Benelux market.

Safety is critical for our facility. I mean we are a distribution business here, so we don't have a kind of production facility. But anyhow, with mainly office people, we still give safety a big portion. That's also I would say during the last year, really developing more and more. So we are looking forward to introducing some more processes, but overall safety is a critical part and we have to really live it.

Colin:

Regarding those new processes that have to be implemented. I think I was already told a little bit about that. On top of the local standards that you have to adhere to, there was some new standards for safety that Chamberlain has set that you guys are getting used to.

Speaker 7:

Exactly. With Brenda coming on board, we formed our new EHS team and I'm part of that. So more and more we are learning and really trying to have a global approach on that.

Colin:

Have you ran into any sort of challenges implicating these new standards?

Speaker 7:

Not really challenges. Biggest challenge I would say we are faced with is really to getting the people motivated and feel that it's not like being these old boring phrases. You have to be careful and watch out where what you have to take. So we really want to start with the bigger focus on practical approach and therefore these kinds of near misses or hazard reporting I think is something which will be a great help for us.

Colin:

And it sounds like some of those new measurements are really going to help with enforcing the culture. It sounds like everybody's really excited about hazard reporting because that's an extra pat on the back, an extra recognition to somebody who's really caring about what they're seeing.

Speaker 7:

That's right, and the good thing there is you are trying to proactively trying to fix something. You're trying to evaluate how did that happen and you are working on how to prevent that to happen again.

Jorge Palacio:

The next area that requires safety, and we may not again think of it, it's our lab in Lamont or our lab in Nogales, or even the technical centers. People are installing GDOs to test them. They get up on ladders and they install equipment. So we have to make sure that the safety standards are also followed. There may not be an industrial type operation, but nonetheless, getting up on a ladder, installing equipment, you have to follow safety practices. The other area that people normally don't think applies as much as an industrial area is offices.

Brenda:

I'm Brenda Aller, the senior EHS manager. So my role here is new within Chamberlain group. My role is to create a global standard of how EHS is managed across our entire organization. So within that, I work with the Nogales manufacturing team. I work with the Australian New Zealand teams. I work with the Europe office, distribution centers, CPSG. And then I also have [inaudible 00:23:04] who reports directly to me too. And his primary focus is [inaudible 00:23:07] safety programs, and then also supports as needed the US sites within systems and CPSG and the DCs and so forth.

Colin:

So a lot of different flavors to have to, you know-

Brenda:

Yeah, a lot of subcultures, a lot of different challenges even with manufacturing. What Systems does to what Nogales does is very, very different. So it's very different hazards, very different cultures we have to manage through as well.

Colin:

Tell me a little bit about what sort of factors we have to keep in mind in the corporate office.

Brenda:

I think it's more than people realize. You kind of take for granted, the hazards that are around you, you don't really think about. It could be as something as simple as not using handrails, going up and down the stairway. One misstep and you're falling down. It could be carpet that's slightly ripped up and you trip over it. A lot of basic stuff that you see and maybe just don't think about or you think you're going to walk around it. But I think probably the biggest answer I see is distracted walking.

Colin:

Distracted walking.

Brenda:

Distracted walking. A lot of looking down at their phones while they're going up and down stairs, even when they're walking on the path outside.

Colin:

Trying to be productive maybe, but...

Brenda:

Yeah, or whatever, maybe you're just watching TikTok or something, right? Which I totally understand. But it's actually pretty hazardous. You really do need to watch where you're going. I mean it's so easy to trip on a little bit of a crack or walk into somebody or something else without realizing it. But the other piece of it too outside of the personal safety is I think understanding that some of the positions here can have a downstream impact on safety at the sites.

Colin:

How so?

Brenda:

So when you think about, for example, forecasting and planning. If the forecasting and planning is not right and all of a sudden, let's just say Nogales has to do a lot of overtime to make up for that, that's fatigue and stress on our employees there. And that typically leads then to more unsafe conditions and unsafe acts, which can lead to incidents. Or if we underestimate our headcount and now all of a sudden we're bringing a lot of new hires into the manufacturing plants, it's really difficult to safely onboard new hires and get them trained and competent to be able to do their job safely without incident.

Colin:

Yeah, I never really thought about it that way, but it makes sense and especially in a corporate environment where we have a lot of-

Brenda:

You don't see it.

Colin:

But we have got a lot of people managers here.

Brenda:

Yeah, exactly.

Colin:

And I really didn't think about if that people manager doesn't have safety at front of mind, they can miss things like that, wow.

Brenda:

So yeah, even everybody just asking yourself, okay, what am I doing that could have an impact on somebody else and what can I do differently so it's not going to be a potential hazard later on? It's a huge question to ask yourself.

Colin:

Do you find any challenges with getting that mindset around the corporate office here?

Brenda:

Yes, especially when you have folks that have never worked maybe in a distribution center or in a manufacturing environment.

Colin:

Lacking perspective.

Brenda:

Yes, they're lacking the perspective, which I completely understand. So somehow we've got to help bring that perspective back and that'll be the biggest challenge, quite honestly, is to help understand not only what they can do day to day and how to keep themselves safe here in the corporate office, but you know how they might be able to support, intentionally or unintentionally, on what's happening at our other sites as well.

Colin:

Tell me a little bit about how you establish or you change something within a company's safety culture.

Jorge Palacio:

If you are saying in a company that safety is the first priority, it has to start from the top, and as leaders, you have to walk the talk. If you're saying that safety is first, you are not going to contradict that and say, "oh no, you have to produce first at any expense." You have to practice what you preach. If you're saying that safety is the number one, you cannot turn a blind eye if you see an unsafe practice. Even though you may be late for a meeting, you stop and you correct the unsafe practice. And be willing to spend the necessary investment for safety.

For example, something as we have very expensive Kevlar gloves in our manufacturing to prevent cuts. We're saying we care about your safety, but now the employee has to wear the gloves, and that's where the behavior and the systems to control that need to be installed and established.

Colin:

What really excites you about the direction that we're headed with our safety culture?

Jorge Palacio:

I am really excited about the environmental possibility. For example, Gosford facility has to be carbon-neutral in a few years, carbon-neutral. So just the aspects and the potential of continuing to help as a company in all the environmental aspects, and gradually to the major leagues and really focus on ESG, which is a much broader scope than EHS. As a company, it really excites me.

Colin:

Jorge, thank you so much for sitting down with me and talking about some safety today.

Jorge Palacio:

Oh, thank you, on the contrary, and remember, safety is our number one. Safety is our way of life, always.

Colin:

On a personal note, I remind myself that I should try my best, but to also be realistic with my work and not strive for perfection. For the leaders in charge of our safety, striving for their best is to strive for perfection, because every day someone's life could depend on it.

I myself am a safety captain at the Oakbrook headquarters, and from these conversations, I've gained a greater appreciation for all of our leaders that hold safety to the highest standard.

Throughout every one of my interviews with our safety leads, I notice that our philosophy shifts to be form-fitting in each environment that our employees work. However, the core belief remains the same, to most importantly, never sacrifice safety to make up for something in a different area. Days after my interviews concluded, I heard a phrase echoing in my mind from my discussion with Afrodita at the Tucson DC. First comes safety, then comes quality, then comes productivity.

Thank you for listening. Tune in next month to hear more stories of how all of us at Chamberlain Group are connected. This episode was written, recorded, and edited by me, Colin Uthe. Our producer is Megan McClendon. Our music was supplied by www.envato.com.