Bi-annual Safety Highlights and Records

At Mauser Packaging Solutions, our dedicated workers are our biggest asset. It is our ethical responsibility to ensure that each employee goes home safe and unharmed, every day. Our facilities continually work to implement and improve safety measures and ensure employees have a safe work environment. Achieving safety milestones requires an ever–present consciousness on the part of every employee and we recognize employees in facilities that have reached and are maintaining significant safety records.

International Packaging

Erkelenz Reconditioning and Noreko Sweden - Both facilities had zero safety incidents in 2021 after having 5 and 3 incidents respectively the previous year. Congratulations to these facilities for their improvement in safety.

Littleborough, U.K. - The Littleborough facility increase focus on near miss reporting and has raised visibility of safety information with the implementation of a Health and Safety Notice Board in the facility.

North America Industrial Packaging

At the end of 2021, 37.5% of NAIP Plants and Distribution Centers have gone more than a year without a recordable incident, 15% have gone 2 or more years without a recordable incident and 3.75% have achieved 6 or more years since the last recordable incident. The business units top performing location is Erlanger, Ky. Fabrication (Distribution) which holds a safety record of 9 years without a recordable incident. For operations locations, Mississauga, ON, Canada has the longest record for time without a recordable incident at 4 years.

Montebello, Calif. - In 2021, the Montebello, Calif. Reconditioning Steel facility reduced their TRIR from 8.89 in 2020 to 2.28 YTD. This improvement is attributed to the increased presence of their Safety Committee, focus on improving operations and completing much needed equipment improvements.  Great job by this facility to increase focus on safety and see results from their efforts.

Alberta, Canada - All five Alberta locations passed their Annual Provincial Safety audits with three of these sites scoring over 90%.

North America Small Packaging

The North America Small Packaging business unit has increased focus on near miss reporting and investigations and is enforcing mandatory reporting and investigation of first aid cases and asset-damage only incidents. These investigations are in addition to the Mauser Packaging Solutions required investigations. In 2021 there were over 300 full investigations of first aid cases and near miss incidents resulting in corrective action. By prioritizing investigations into additional incident categories, corrective action can be implemented to avoid more serious incidents in the future. 

The business unit also launched a pilot of the National Safety Council Supervisors Development Program. Over 40 supervisors from 12 different facilities are currently participating via webinars conducted by Allen Coppolo, Small Packaging EHS Director. Additionally, the business unit, along with NAIP, recently implemented a new “12-Step Building Block for Safety” audit process.  Moving into 2022, these audits will be the foundation of evaluating the effectiveness of safety programs and activities to improve the overall safety culture of facilities in North America.

Notable Facility Activities

• Congratulations to Monroe, Ohio and Indianapolis, Ill. facilities for leading in Safety Balanced Scorecard points all year. These results are a reflection of the strong commitment to safety in these two facilities.
• The Springhill, NS, Canada facility recently installed two new pallet lifter systems on printing presses. The pallet lifter improves ergonomics for the operator by eliminating lifting above shoulder height while maximizing shipment quantities which improves customer satisfaction.
• Following an Employee Work Observation, the Langley, BC, Canada  facility made a modification to pail handles to reduce ergonomic stressors on employees when inserting handles onto pails.
• The Cedar City, Utah facility is providing safer and more efficient access to elevated equipment and machinery with the implementation of OSHA compliant mobile staircases and platforms. The facility also initiated guarding upgrades for several litho printers.

Facility Milestones

• On July 11, the Indianapolis, Ind. facility reached 3,650 days or 10 years without a lost time injury.
• On October 22, the LaGrange, Ga. facility reached 5,475 days or 15 years without a lost time injury.
• As of December 2, 2021, Atlanta, Ga. IBC facility has gone one year without a recordable incident for the first time in the facility's history.

Facility Safety Records Over Three Months
(based on recordable incidents as of 12/17/2021)

Cidra - 3+ years
Monroe - 3+ years
Sturtevant - 15 months
Springhill - 13 months
Atlanta IBC - 13 months
Langley - 6 months
Mansfield - 4 months
Oakville - 4 months
Fontana - 3 months
Leominster - 3 months
Garland - 3 months