Great Dane’s manufacturing facility in Jonesboro, Ark., has won the 2018 Truck Trailer Manufacturers Association’s (TTMA) Plant Safety Contest for Category A, the company announced Tuesday. Great Dane says this category includes facilities that work more than 750,000 man-hours per year.
“Jonesboro’s leadership team made a commitment to develop a culture of safety within the plant,” says Brian Sage, Great Dane’s executive vice president, manufacturing. “The entire Jonesboro team got behind this initiative and committed to making the necessary changes to create a safe work environment and build a strong culture of safety.”
Great Dane says its Jonesboro facility employs more than 450 people and amassed more than 1 million hours without a lost time incident in 2018. Along with Great Dane’s other manufacturing facilities, the Jonesboro plant has implemented a strong 5S program as well as a Behavior-Based Safety (BBS) program to help improve housekeeping within the facility and create a safer work environment. This is the third TTMA Plant Safety Award for the Jonesboro facility and the 39th total award for Great Dane since the contest began in 1971, the company says.
“Creating a culture of safety requires dedication from everyone in a facility to make thoughtful decisions, to use the proper tools and to follow the correct processes,” Sage says. “The Jonesboro team has demonstrated what it takes to be the best in safety of all large trailer plants in the industry. I am extremely proud of all they have accomplished and congratulate them on this outstanding accomplishment.”
The TTMA recognizes the importance of safety and desires to acknowledge organizations that are achieving excellence in this area. The Plant Safety Contest is a competition among all trailer manufacturers who are members of the TTMA. Plants are scored on the number of recordable injury rates, lost work day cases, and Days Away, Days Restricted or Days Transferred (DART) due to injuries per 100 employees. Great Dane says the award determinations are based on direct comparison of injury data from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Annual Summary Form 300A.
Great Dane recognizes suppliers
Great Dane also has recognized two of its supply partners with service awards for their outstanding support and commitment to the company. Executives from Great Dane presented Hendrickson International and Rockland Flooring with these awards at the TTMA Annual Convention last month in Bonita Springs, Fla.
