To encourage departments to properly carry out management work for better safety, Standing Committee member Susan Wang personally hosted the meeting for promoting the "Blueprint for Creating a Safety Culture" on May 3, 2012, and set out clear tasks and goals for the Company to create a safety culture. The annual event for commending departments with excellent safety culture performance was held for the first time that year. According to instructions from Standing Committee member Wang, chairpersons of the four main companies took turns hosting the event starting in 2016.
The annual event for commending departments with excellent safety culture performance in 2021 was held in Mailiao Industrial Complex on October 7. This is the 10th year that the event has been held, and was hosted by Chairperson Chia-Chao Wu of Nan Ya Plastics Corporation, who handed out the awards. The departments with excellent performance were invited to share their implementation experience, and departments that needed to improve their safety culture gave improvement reports. Key points of the commendation event are summarized below.
Awards
A total of 10 awards were handed out during the event for commending departments with excellent safety culture performance. After severe competition between departments, a total of 40 departments with excellent performance were selected, and Chairperson Wu personally awarded them with a medal and prize money.
Chairman gives a welcome speech
Chairperson Wu first congratulated the 40 departments that received awards for excellent safety culture performance, and gave the departments recognition for their hard work in creating a safety culture. He expressed his hopes that the supervisors will continue to dedicate their efforts. Key points are summarized below:
The collective efforts and persistence of all employees is necessary to create a safety culture, and senior managers, management, and basic level employees are all important to its success. The president instructed that: work instructions and rules should be clearly given, and may not be separately interpreted by different levels, which may cause the instructions to be misunderstood. Supervisors must lead by example to gain firsthand experience, and must inspect the execution of orders via management by walking around. Supervisors may not hold the attitude of minding their own business. He hoped that supervisors will frequently remind employees and also be self-disciplined, in order to form a positive safety management cycle.
FPG constantly updated its approach to EHS management in recent years, and began to promote circular economy through energy conservation and emission reduction. FPG began to further implement cross-plant, cross-company applications of raw materials, water resources, energy, and waste circulation.
The president of FPG declared on September 24, 2020 that FPG will dedicate its efforts to digital transformation, integrate all digital technologies for process optimization, improve operation performance and labor safety management performance. For example, we will use AI image recognition technology to inspect pipe rack and pipelines for corrosion, recognize abnormal smoke or fire from equipment, and the completeness of protective equipment worn by personnel. The use of smart fool-proof facilities for safety protection combined with the implementation of process safety management, along with enhanced personnel SOP training and certification, is the only way to prevent accidents from occurring.
FPG selects departments with excellent safety culture performance each year, and supervisors of the departments lead the factory office in internalizing putting labor safety first into the corporate culture, and continue to promote safe workplace environments.
Promoting safety culture at Formosa Plastics Group
The Safety Health & Environment Center reviewed the history of the commendation event, and summarized FPG's safety and health performance since it began holding commendation events.
1. The comprehensive injury index
The comprehensive injury index is an indicator used in the industry to evaluate employee occupational safety management, and is an employee safety performance indicator determined based on the frequency (number of cases) and severity (number of days lost) of occupational accidents. FPG's comprehensive injury index from 2017 to January to August this year has been better than the domestic manufacturing industry every year. There were no major occupational accidents in 2021, and we will continue to dedicate our efforts to achieving zero occupational accidents.
2. Fire accidents
A total of 4 fire accidents occurred in January to August 2021, which is a slight improvement compared with the same period last year. However, FPG has zero tolerance for fire accidents, and has required departments to improve the quality of process hazard analysis, which has effectively discovered potential hazards of processes. We comprehensively reviewed PHA to avoid underestimating risks and ensure process safety, so as to achieve zero fire accidents.
3. Leakage improvement
Plants in Mailiao Industrial Complex have been actively carrying out process pipeline rectification, and used the best available process technology to improve process conditions. The number of leakages each year has gradually decreased from an average of 52.9 cases per month in 2017 to 16.7 cases per month in 2021, and departments will continue to pursue zero leakages.
4. Traffic safety outside FPG's industrial parks
To ensure the safety of FPG employees when commuting to work and prevent traffic accidents, the EHS Center has taken various measures to improve traffic safety, including setting standards for rewards and penalties, departments assigning dedicated personnel to be responsible for improving traffic safety, and organizing traffic safety promotions and training. The number of work-related traffic accidents gradually decreased each year from 148 cases in 2017 (an average of 12.3 cases per month) to 67 cases in 2021 (an average of 8.3 cases per month). Even though the number of work-related traffic accidents in January to August this year remained the same, we hope the collective efforts of all departments will prevent any work-related traffic accidents from occurring.
Companies in the group were asked to select departments with excellent performance to share their safety culture promotion results during the commendation event. The Mailiao Alkali Plant of Formosa Plastics Corporation, Xingang Copper Foil Plant 2 of Nan Ya Plastics Corporation, Xingang PABS Plant of Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corporation, and Mailiao Isoprene Plant of Formosa Petrochemical Corporation shared how they improved leakages, managed fire safety, maintained traffic safety, and implemented MOC. The companies were also asked to assign departments that need to improve their safety culture to give improvement reports, in hopes that departments attending the event will learn how to make improvements through the examples of outstanding departments and improvement experience.
Conclusion
During the closing ceremony, Chairperson Wu said that during the event for commending departments with excellent safety culture performance, all departments can learn from the 8 examples of departments with excellent performance or needed improvement, and avoid making the same mistakes. FPG is currently implementing AI and digital technologies to further improve safe production management, and reduces raw material and energy consumption through process optimization, strengthening cost management and safety management, and improving labor safety management.
The commendation event has been held for 10 years, and departments continue to carry out labor safety management, dedicating their efforts to achieve better safety and health management performance. FPG has gradually created a safety culture, but there is still room for improvement. Chairperson Wu encouraged all employees to actively implement process and occupational safety management, equipment integrity, and utilize AI and digital technology to support safety management and further strengthen the company's fundamentals. The participation of all employees lets every employee develop the habit of safe operation, and continue to implement the company's safety culture.
(FPG, Nov 5, 2021)