April - June 2012
Reduce Emergency Impact by Preparing in Advance
Prepare for an emergency before it happens. Having an emergency preparation plan in place before it is needed can help reduce a company's downtime after any incident.
By: DeAnna Stephens Baker, Pallet Enterprise
Several catastrophic explosions at sawmills in the past few months underscore the need for pallet and forest products companies to have plans in place to both reduce risks and respond to incidents when they occur. A number of these incidents took place in Canada where wood dust is considered the prime culprit. These explosions sadly resulted in multiple fatalities. But they also caused extensive damage to the facilities and machinery, shutting down operations and causing losses in production time for the companies.
Fires, explosions, accidents, and other emergencies can be fatal to a business from the combined cost of damages and lost profit alone. All companies should be prepared to respond to an emergency — even those that have never had a major incident. Planning for possible emergencies before they happen allows a company to respond to any incident in an organized and efficient manner. Even the most careful of companies can have something happen. And it is better to have a plan in place and never need it than to need a plan and not have one in place.
Emergency plans can include many components. Some of the basic ones include what to do when a worker is injured, when there is a natural disaster, or in the case of a fire. And there are, of course, some rudimentary requirements of emergency plans that are mandated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). However, each company should take time to consider what additional components should be included in their plan, based on their location, facility set-up and any other unique situations.
Some time spent brain-storming and attempting to think outside the box could have some great benefits for companies. A good starting point for companies that have dealt with emergencies in the past is to think about those experiences, what some of the biggest issues were, and lessons learned from them to come up with other components that should be included and emphasized in your plan.
An example of a creative component is the inclusion of a section in your emergency plan on how to handle workplace violence. J.F. Rohrbaugh, a wooden pallet manufacturer in Hanover, Penn. has covered this area noting that domestic disputes can spill into the workplace and become an issue that employers are unfortunately forced to handle.
"You see different emergencies take place from hospitals to nursing homes, and it's a crazed world sometimes. So we address that in our emergency plan too," said Steve Kerr, director of employee development and corporate safety at J.F. Rohrbaugh.
An important yet often overlooked component to emergency preparation is planning how to continue operations after the initial emergency has been dealt with. Do you know how your company would handle fulfilling orders if an incident shuts down a machine or an entire facility? For companies with more than one location, this might be a matter of shifting production volumes at secondary locations. But it is important to think through all of the "what-ifs" of such a shift and the adjustments that they could require. These could include sending employees to different locations, adding extra shifts and adjusting supply and delivery routes.
Potential scenarios should be carefully thought through and planned for so that if they are ever needed, the process can be quickly and smoothly implemented. Companies with only one location do not have those options, however. J.F. Rohrbaugh has found a creative way to deal with this issue. It has agreements in place with some "friendly competitors" to assist each other with productions needs in the event that any one of them have some or all of their production capabilities crippled by an emergency.
Last year, J.F. Rohrbaugh's mulch machine was rendered unusable after it caught on fire. As they waited for the insurance paperwork to be processed and a new machine arrived, Kerr said that they worked with other companies to supply their customers' orders.
"Having those relationships set up, described in the plan enabled us to focus, not only on the fire, but how we were going to do what we do and still make money at the end of the day," said Kerr. "Surprisingly, it's not that strange. When you start talking with other companies and start working with them, they're in the same boat you could be in."
Kerr added that many companies understand that they too could need assistance in an emergency situation. "When you look at emergency planning from that standpoint, more people are willing to work with you because it's a reasonable request," he said.
Another frequently forgotten aspect of emergencies preparation is how to handle office emergencies. Incidents that damage machinery or shut down production facilities are not the only type of major emergency that can happen to sawmill and pallet companies. If computer data, such as customer lists and order information, is corrupted or lost, it can cause just as many problems. For this reason, J.F. Rohrbaugh has consistent backup protocols for their office computers in place. If a lightning strike was to destroy their computers or if the office was destroyed by a fire or other natural disaster, a copy of all of their electronic data is safe on removable disks that they store in a secure location.
"When necessary, we can take those disks, plug them into another computer someplace and, boom, we're up and running," said Kerr. "I think that's a very valuable tool for any business to have that might experience a flood, building collapse or whatever the case may be. Even if all your machinery is in good shape, you are kind of at a standstill if you don't have those redundancies built-in."
Though this article does not address most of the basic
requirements of emergency planning, it is impossible to not mention the place that training holds in emergency preparation. Training workers is a vital part of any emergency preparation plan and something that companies can get creative with. Having the best and most complete plan written does absolutely no good if no one knows what it says or how to implement it.
Vaagen Bros. Lumber, which has locations in Colville and Usk, Wash., has a consistent schedule of emergency and safety training meetings that employees are required to attend. This includes training all new employees, yearly evacuation training and drills, and monthly safety meetings on a scheduled list of safety-related topics. But they have taken it a step further than that even, by forming a safety committee.
Suzie Gotham, the company's human resources coordinator said that the committee includes one person from each department and shift. This is a simple way to ensure that there is someone in all areas of the facility who has the responsibility to lead other workers on what they should do in emergency situations. According to Gotham, each member of the safety committee has first aid training, is involved in conducting safety audits throughout the plant on a regular basis and makes sure that their crew knows what is going on.
It is important for all companies and every employee to realize that they are not immune to emergencies large or small and that the most important step in preparing for any type of emergency is just that, preparing. Having plans in place that employees are familiar with can go a long way toward lowering the state of confusion that often accompanies emergency situations. And by including plans for continuing operations in the prepared plan, companies are able to think through them while they have the luxury of time to do so, instead of trying to make them on the fly, and losing even more time trying to figure out what to do.
"The best way to avoid any type of disaster is preparedness," said Kerr. "Prepare for the worst case scenario then pray it never happens."