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· Occupational Health and Safety · Disaster Prevention · Logistics Safety Management · Green Logistics
As a company handling chemical substances, we place the utmost importance on safety and accident prevention. In this section, we illustrate our wide-ranging activities to that end.
Occupational Health and Safety
Despite extensive efforts aimed at maintaining an accident-free record, accidents causing lost work time occurred in Polyplastics' Fuji Plant every year from 2006 to 2008.
In order to prevent the recurrence of such accidents, since 2008 we have been pushing forward initiatives that place extra emphasis on safety awareness. In addition to thoroughly amending our Basic Safety Rules, we developed activities aimed at instilling safety awareness in the workplace. These have included a visual verification and verbal confirmation ("point and call") system, the display of a variety of safety slogans, the siting of safety bulletin boards in workplaces and holding hazard simulation training exercises.
In 2009, we set the bar even higher and the Fuji Plant received Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) 18001 certification. This standard was established with a view to managing occupational safety and health risk in the workplace as well as to minimizing the risks to which employees and other interested parties can be exposed and maintaining general operational safety levels. Plans call for all Group plants to have completed the acquisition of OHSAS 18001 certification during the course of 2010.
In 2009, as another result of the above-mentioned activities and initiatives, Polyplastics was able to achieve "Zero accidents" involving lost work time for the first time in three years. Safety awareness activities and OHSAS 18001 risk assessments will play pivotal roles as Polyplastics sets its sights on maintaining its record of "Zero accidents," including those accidents not involving lost work time.
Health and Safety Policy
Based on the recognition that securing the health and safety of all workers is the foundation of corporate survival, all workers shall actively participate in the maintenance and improvement of occupational health and safety practices.
- With the aim of achieving zero occupational accidents, we shall continuously work on health and safety management activities throughout the PDCA cycle.*
- We shall observe laws and regulations, such as the Industrial Health and Safety Law, and ensure the safety of workers based on company regulations and standards.
- We shall create a safe and healthy workplace through the development of a comfortable working environment.
- We shall promote awareness of health and safety among our employees and our group companies' workers through the implementation of health and safety education practices.
- PDCA cycle: A management methodology for achieving continuous business process improvement by repeatedly implementing a four-step Plan, Do, Act, Check (PDCA) cycle.
- No fire or explosion accidents
- No occupational injuries
- No other accidents (minor fires, traffic accidents)
Objectives
- Promotion of initiatives designed to enhance safety awareness
- Continuous improvement of OHSAS systems
- Elimination of unsafe acts and unsafe conditions through on-site inspections
- Promotion of TBM/KY1 activities
- Near-miss accident activities2
- Thorough implementation of the "5S"3 basic operation practices
- Encourage traffic safety
Main Efforts
- Toolbox meeting (TBM) and KY (from the Japanese term for predicting danger) activities: Prior to the start of operations, workers break up into small groups and try to identify the dangers in their daily work operations and arrangements in order to plan the procedures for safe work operations. Traditionally, workers usually held these meetings while sitting on their toolboxes, hence the name.
- Such activities are aimed at preventing accidents through the collection and disclosure of reports concerning potentially disastrous incidents (near-miss accidents) experienced by workers during their work operations.
- We ensure that workers implement the five basic practices of what is known as the "5S" system (based on five Japanese words beginning with "s"): organization, tidiness, cleanliness, hygiene, and discipline.
Trends of Relative Accident Frequency Rate* for Occupational Injury with Lost Worktime
- The safety index represents the incident rate of occupational accidents. It indicates the number of accident victims accompanied by lost worktime per million labor hours.
Disaster Prevention
As our Fuji Plant handles large amounts of chemical substances, we naturally conduct activities with the aim of preventing disasters and have prepared emergency measures should a disaster occur. At the same time, since the plant is located in Fuji City, which could be hit by the Great Tokai Earthquake, we carry out a large-scale earthquake disaster drill once a year. Following the recent occurrence of major earthquakes throughout Japan, we do not confine such drills solely to the Fuji Plant and are now conducting training programs on a company-wide basis.
A 6.6-magnitude earthquake, with its epicenter beneath Suruga Bay, struck early in the morning on August 11, 2009. This provided us with an opportunity to verify, on a company-wide scale, the earthquake measures, emergency response planning and effectiveness of the training implemented to date.
| Awards | From | |
|---|---|---|
| July 2001 | Award for high-pressure gas preservation | President of High Pressure Gas Safety Union of Japan |
| November 2004 | Highest award | Chairperson of Electric Safety Kanto Committee |
| October 2005 | Governor's award for excellence in the handling of high-pressure gas | Prefectural Governor of Shizuoka Prefecture |
| October 2008 | Chairman's award for business facility excellence of the High Pressure Gas Safety Institute of Japan | Chairman of the High Pressure Gas Safety Institute of Japan |
Logistics Safety Management
As part of safety measures and to prevent the occurrence of traffic accidents and disasters either within or outside our plants during logistics operations, Polyplastics implements the following activities in collaboration with logistics companies.
- We exchange memoranda on cargo transportation, storage and handling
with distributors and provide them with guidance and training. - We ensure that distributors thoroughly observe our safe distribution rules.
- We require drivers to carry "yellow cards"* at all times.
- To be carried by delivery drivers when on duty, a card providing relevant information on the appropriate action to be taken in the event of an accident.
Green Logistics
As one measure to combat global warming, Polyplastics actively works with logistics companies to implement activities that reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions when procuring raw materials and shipping products. Specifically, we are taking steps to improve loading rates for truck transportation and encourage driving practices that lower emissions. We are also switching transportation methods through a modal shift from trucks to rail and ship transportation as well as working to optimize transport routes.
Consequently, as the graph illustrating transport energy efficiency below shows, we have been able to reduce energy consumption per ton-kilometer* by 29% compared with 2006, when we launched our green logistics activities. Hand in hand with this improvement, CO2 emissions from transport have also declined year by year.
- The amount of energy needed to carry a one-ton load a distance of one kilometer
Volume of CO2 Emissions and Unit Energy Consumption from Transport Operations
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