Great Dane’s manufacturing facility in Jonesboro AR recently won a 2018 plant safety award from the Truck Trailer Manufacturers Association (TTMA).
The plant won in Category A, which includes facilities with more than 750,000 man-hours per year. Category B includes plants with 300,000 to 750,000 man-hours, and Category C is less than 300,000 man-hours.
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.
“Jonesboro’s leadership team made a commitment to develop a culture of safety within the plant,” said Brian Sage, Great Dane’s executive vice president of 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.”
The 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.
“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 said. “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.”
TTMA emphasizes plant safety and acknowledges organizations that are achieving excellence in this area. Great Dane is a member of TTMA and has had several employees serve in various leadership roles within the organization. Rick Mullininx, Great Dane’s executive vice president of engineering, is a former chairman of the board for TTMA, and Dave Ritchie, Great Dane’s environmental health and safety director, is currently the chairman of the TTMA’s Safety Committee.
The Plant Safety Contest is a competition among all trailer manufacturers who are members of 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.
Award determinations are based on a comparison of injury data from the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Annual Summary Form 300A.