This has allowed the company to adopt a more risk-preventive strategy that has also resulted in lowering of its insurance premiums.
After installing the modular system from Effective Software, Hilton’s health and safety officer David Hoey also reduced the equivalent of one day a week he previously spent administering safety data to just two hours a week.
Reduced time spent on paperwork
It has also reduced time spent on paperwork by Hoey’s team of auditors and administrators. Since 75% of the paperwork they managed related to accident books, near miss reporting and hazard reports, the first module to implement covered incidents.
The system enabled anyone to report an accident, incident or hazard in around 30 seconds. Users could choose whether to report anonymously or to provide their name, which has increased the uptake of reporting.
Where the report applied to a technical safety issue or a breakdown, engineers receive an automatic notification and can attend to fix the problem immediately.
Hazards and solutions
Feedback on issues raised is provided each day on a noticeboard so that people know their reports are read and taken account of. This has encouraged employees to talk more about hazards and solutions with the safety team.
The safety culture has improved with a shift from corrective actions to preventive actions and people were ready to move onto the risk module. Rather than replicate existing risk assessments, the Hilton Foods team took the opportunity to revise how risk assessments were organised.
Instead of carrying out assessments for each machine as before, risk assessments have been organised around each process line so that it is clear what the hazards are for each area of the plant.