“Hot Buttons” Session Gives Attendees Safety Insight

Just a few hours before Bill Rudersdorf spoke to COMPOSITES 2010 attendees about preparing for unexpected visits from OSHA officials, OSHA regulators showed up at his company, Composites One LLC in Arlington Heights, Ill. “The good news is they were only there for three hours,” he says.

The story underscored the point of Rudersdorf’s presentation: Be prepared for OSHA visits before representatives arrive at your facility.

Rudersdorf, who serves Composites One as director of health, safety and environment, explained to attendees that OSHA penalties are based on four factors: gravity of the violation, size of the business, good faith of the employer and the employer’s history of previous violations. “The best move is to have documented organized training programs,” he said. “If your program has a ‘wow’ factor and your housekeeping methods look impressive, it’s much more effective.” Rudersdorf also recommended that attendees develop a hazard communication program that workers understand.

He was part of an expert panel that spoke about new developments in environmental and worker safety regulation and enforcement. The gist: Composites firms aren’t just looking to diversity their operations and grow revenue with new products; they seek to avoid trouble from regulators.

Marcus Bingham, vice president of Clarion Bathware, spoke about ways to incorporate safety incentives to help make safety an ongoing thought among workers. “The goal here is awareness—that’s the secret to reducing accidents.” He gave attendees tips and ideas on crafting memorable, fun employee-recognition programs.

Other panelists included Bill Holtzclaw, president of Holtec LLC; Jeff Austad, vice president of specialty unit sales and distribution for Magnum Venus Plastech; Dennis Fink, technical service manager for Syrgis Performance Initiators Inc.; Jack Benton, CEO of Benton & Associates; and Lowell Miles, founder and owner of Miles Fiberglass & Composites Inc.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 11th, 2010 at 10:00 am and is filed under General Interest, Manufacturing and Processes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.