Going Universal - VPPPA Region I Chapter

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VPP – the
Ultimate team
Building exercise
AchieVing VPP stAr in A
hAzArdous industry
by tim reeVes >> sAfety engineer, nucor decAtur
molten metal, massive equipment and overhead cranes making 250 ton lifts – these are not
visualizations you get when thinking of a VPP site unless you work at nucor corporation.
nucor corporation has embraced VPP’s “above and beyond” safety concept. nucor is the
largest producer of steel in the united states with over 22,000 team members. nucor is also
the country’s largest recycler of scrap metal. within nucor, there are 15 divisions that have
either achieved VPP status or are waiting on the results from their onsite evaluations. we have
another 20 that are currently working on their applications. our top leadership at nucor has
made the following commitment to safety:
our Attitude towArd sAfety couldn’t
be cleArer — nothing is more
imPortAnt thAn sAfety. nothing.
safety is part of our culture – our dnA. however, our site was not where we wanted to be.
the VPP process gave us a safety target to shoot for. it’s easy to tell your team to work safe
and be careful, but VPP gave us a target. we had an objective to strive for. it pulled our team
closer toward the goal and focused our minds on the goal of zero injuries.
the steel industry has long been considered a hazardous industry. in 2008, there were 19
fatalities in our industry. At nucor, we will not and cannot accept that our team members will
get hurt just because we work in a hazardous environment. our goal is always zero. because
of this, we have teamed up with the occupational safety and health Administration (oshA)
and the Voluntary Protection Programs Participants’ Association, inc. (VPPPA) to change the
perception that making steel is a deadly profession. during our workshop at the 26th Annual
national VPPPA conference, we will be talking about our journey to VPP star. this is our story.
34 the leAder >> sPring 2010
In the early summer of 2008, the Nucor
Steel Decatur management team made
a verbal and written commitment to
become part of an elite group of industry
sites qualifying for OSHA’s Voluntary
Protection Programs (VPP). This was an
accomplishment some of our other Nucor
divisions had already achieved and many
others were working toward. In terms
of Decatur’s safety, we felt that we were
good but we wanted to be great. When the
Decatur division started this process, our
goal was to fly the VPP Star flag. What
happened was an evolution in health and
safety at our site. VPP sparked a process
of improvement that turned into the
ultimate “team building exercise.” One of
our team members summed it up during
the VPP onsite evalutation in April 2009
when she said, “before VPP, I thought we
were good at safety - but we were really
just ok!”
We started the process with organizing
a plant-wide VPP team composed of a
diverse group of team members including
management, maintenance, operators,
office personnel and contractors. In
addition to this large group, we organized
15 specialized safety teams that would
further evolve our safety management
system. Each team was given an objective
but little instruction on how they would
accomplish it. Nucor Decatur, like
most Nucor sites, is heavy with type A
personality team members. Because of
this, the teams started a frenzied attack
of their objectives. Due to the freedom
that they were allowed, the teams came
up with their own solutions to problems
that resulted with each team discovering
their own path to VPP. This evolution
of safety began to mature as each team
member sincerely believed in what they
were doing and had the management
support to get it done. This freedom to
run with their teams sustained confidence
and built momentum toward the effort.
You could feel the excitement growing
with the teams as the VPP onsite
evaluation got closer.