Workplace Safety
Textron is committed to maintaining and enhancing the safety and well-being of our employees. We promote a culture of continuous improvement and individual accountability to strive for our ultimate vision of zero workplace injuries.
At the corporate level, our Global Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) Policies and Standards establish a management system framework that includes goal setting, risk reduction, compliance auditing, and performance reporting. Our businesses augment the corporate program with management systems of their own. For instance, Kautex facilities are ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certified. The overall program is guided by the Textron EHS Council, whose members include the senior EHS leaders from the Textron corporate office and each Textron business unit. We use an annual goal setting process to drive environmental sustainability and injury rate improvements. The injury rate reduction goal is a performance metric that resides at the highest levels of the organization. Performance to this goal is reported to Textron’s Audit Committee and is tracked and reported to senior leadership as part of our Plan-Do-Check-Act process.
Textron uses various metrics to evaluate health and safety performance globally. The United States Department of Labor Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) recordkeeping rules are the guidelines all Textron facilities use for reporting injuries. In 2018 we had a Total Recordable Injury Rate (TRIR) of 1.05 and a Lost Time Injury Rate (LTIR) of 0.27.
TEXTRON’S ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AND SAFETY FRAMEWORK
Textron’s EHS Vision and Operating Principles arise from our company values of integrity, respect, trust and the pursuit of excellence in all relationships with customers, employees, business partners, suppliers, shareholders, the community and the environment.
Our EHS Vision:
We are committed to the health and safety of our employees, contractors, and communities. We will actively champion environmentally sound practices and safe behaviors. We will continuously improve our processes, require individual accountability and demonstrate leadership to strive for zero injuries, eliminate adverse environmental impacts, and contribute positively to the communities in which we operate.
Our EHS Operating Principles:
- No job or activity is worth risking injury
- All injuries and environmental incidents are preventable
- Working safely and in an environmentally responsible manner is a condition of employment
- Each of us is responsible for the safe behavior of ourselves and others
- Environmental, Health and Safety is led by senior management, implemented by line management, with each level accountable to the one above and responsible for the one below
- We will design and integrate Environmental, Health and Safety into our products, our facilities and into our management process
- All employees will be provided the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities to work safely
- Strong environmental, health and safety performance is good business
Recognizing Employee-Led Improvements to Environmental, Health and Safety
Each year, the Textron Environmental, Health & Safety Award for Excellence recognizes extraordinary achievements by our employees within the categories of safety, ergonomics, health and wellbeing and sustainability. Textron’s EHS Council chooses a winning team who has successfully implemented a project within each of those categories. Below are some of the winning projects from 2018.
Improving SAFETY at Kautex: New Process for Preventing Injury Reoccurrence
Kautex analyzed facility accidents and significant near-misses over a year and a half and categorized the data. This allowed the business to close identified system gaps by documenting and sharing lessons learned and implementing countermeasures across its global locations to prevent reoccurrences. The new Prevent Re-Occurrence (PRO) process has significantly eliminated repeat injury events and driven faster, deeper replication across the business.
Reducing ERGONOMICS Risks at Textron Aviation: Automatic Drilling of Wing Spars
A wing spar is a major structural component of the wing on fixed-wing aircraft such as the Beechcraft KingAir and Cessna piston aircraft lines. Previously, wing spar assembly required manual drilling which presented ergonomic challenges and contributed to downtime and high scrap costs. The Textron Aviation team designed and built an automated drilling machine which dramatically reduced ergonomic and quality risks.