DuPont is one of the largest chemical industry companies in the United States, and also the world's largest chemical and energy, known as the world's "chemical empire". After five generations of operation by the DuPont family, DuPont has become a typical family trust. Founded in 1802, DuPont has been in existence for more than two centuries and is the oldest and most qualified chemical company in the world's top 500 companies. DuPont started out making gunpowder and was the first company in the world to develop safety regulations.
In 2001, 80 percent of DuPont's 267 plants and departments worldwide had no incapacitated workday (one day or more sick leave) accidents, 50 percent had no record of injury, 20 percent had no record of injury for more than 10 years, and in more than 70 countries, 79,000 employees created $25 billion in output.
DuPont has remained
Impressive safety record:
1. The safety accident rate is 10 times lower than the industrial average;
2. DuPont employees are 10 times safer at work than at home;
3. More than 60% of factories have achieved zero injury, and many factories have achieved no accidents for 20 or even 30 years (accidents refer to sick leave caused by work injuries for more than one day off);
4. 30% of factories have no injury record for more than ten consecutive years;
In the chemical industry, when duPont is mentioned, everyone knows that it is an industry giant with significant contributions in many fields. In today's chemical industry, small and medium-sized enterprises are difficult to survive, and various thresholds such as environmental protection and safety are the life and death tests of small and medium-sized enterprises. When we envy DuPont as a multinational corporation, do we ever think that DuPont has also become a small business into a large enterprise?
In order to help everyone better understand the DuPont culture, Jingcheng Little Guardian has sorted out the relevant content of DuPont safety culture and will push it to everyone in installments for everyone to learn.
DuPont has a history of more than 200 years of entrepreneurship
Founder of DuPont: Pierre Dupont
In addition to world-class innovative products and services, DuPont's safety culture is also highly respected by all countries in the world, and DuPont's safety culture concept of more than 200 years has played a positive role in promoting global industrial production.
Accidents can't be avoided? Or is the chemical industry doomed to suffer? One of the world's chemical giants, DuPont in the United States, has paved the way for us with more than 200 years of history...
At the beginning, I ate the bowl of rice in high-risk industries
Similar to BASF's history, DuPont was founded and grew up in a turbulent war situation! In 1799, the family of pierre Dupont, a French exiled aristocrat, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and came to the United States in search of survival. It was during the American Revolutionary War, and the streets were tense and dangerous. The Pierre family is not willing to be realistic, and wants to get a chance to get ahead and make a fortune in it!
Source: DuPont official website
The old DuPont has successively carried out business plans such as land speculation, cruise lines, and entrepot trade, but they have all been clearly and unmistakably admonished to "dispel this idea and make another good plan."
At this time, irenaeus Dupont, the second son of the elder Dupont, discovered a business opportunity. In view of the situation, whether it is the government or some fields, there is a large demand for arms, and the United States at that time gunpowder was inferior and expensive. This fragrant bowl of rice was in front of him, and Irenaeus wanted to eat it.
In April 1802, Irene built the largest gunpowder factory in the United States on the banks of the Brandiva River in the United States, issuing 18 shares of 2,000 US dollars each, raising a total of 36,000 US dollars, and DuPont was born.
Coupled with the support of President Thomas Jefferson (Jefferson had a political friendship with Dupont Sr., who called Dupont Sr. "the most talented man in France"), the U.S. federal government became DuPont's biggest buyer, with profits imaginable.
The DuPont family understands that the company has eaten the bowl of high-risk industries from the beginning, and the next thing to face is more than just fierce industry competition...
Behind the success is trembling and anxiety
The flocks of deer compete for their own abilities. With its deep economic strength, the government's push and wave, and decisive leadership decisions, DuPont soon became the leader in the gunpowder market, which made many of its peers look red and jealous.
In 1872, DuPont took the lead in establishing the "Gunpowder Trust" (the American Gunpowder Guild), taking advantage of the fact that it occupied most of the market share.
By 1889, 92.5 percent of U.S. gunpowder production was monopolized in this "gunpowder trust" controlled by DuPont. Even in the midst of economic depression and the lack of success in various industries, DuPont is still standing.
Even industry competition and economic crisis can be safely overcome, duPont seems to have nothing to fear, except for safety accidents like a flood beast!
From 1802 to 1880, DuPont's main business was not separated from the production of gunpowder. Gunpowder explodes at any time, although this was taken into account at the outset in the selection and design of the plant, reducing the possible explosion to a minimum of losses. But a succession of major casualties still occur, and even several relatives of the DuPont family have not escaped the fate.
▲ In 1815, the DuPont factory exploded, killing 9 workers and losing 20,000 US dollars, which was the first personal injury or death accident of DuPont;
In 1818, a more serious explosion took the lives of 40 workers and injured Irenay's wife, and the company was on the verge of bankruptcy;
▲ In 1847, a workshop of the gunpowder factory exploded, destroying a factory building and killing 18 workers on the spot;
▲ In 1854, three horse-drawn carriages carrying gunpowder exploded in the city, killing 1 coachman and 2 citizens;
▲ In 1884, when producing a new product, the nitroglycerin plant exploded, the plant collapsed, and DuPont chemical experts and factory directors were killed on the spot
······
Every time there is an accident, the DuPont family trembles once, after all, no company wants to be hooked up with the "flood beast".
The lessons of blood and the humanistic ideas inherited by the old DuPont have made the leaders of DuPont painstakingly introduce a series of strict and effective measures, and put forward the concept of "all accidents can be prevented" and the goal of "zero accidents".
DuPont's safety culture
DuPont is a company that mainly produces black powder.
The production of black powder is a very high-risk industry, and there were many accidents in the early days. In one of the worst accidents, DuPont had just over 100 employees, 40 of whom were killed or injured, and DuPont faced bankruptcy. DuPont's gunpowder technology was in the leading position of DuPont's gunpowder technology in the United States at that time, the United States was fully developing the west, needing a large amount of gunpowder, so the government provided a large number of loans to DuPont, in this context, DuPont company safety concept began to sprout. Initially, DuPont himself made three decisions for the company:
first
Establish a management responsibility system for safety, that is, safe production must be directly responsible for by the production management, from the general manager to the factory director, and then to the department leader to be responsible for safety;
second
Establish a provident fund system, take a part from the employee's salary, the enterprise takes out a part to establish the provident fund, in case of an accident, the enterprise and the employee have an economic buffer;
third
In order to realize the care of employees, the families of employees who have been injured in accidents will be supported, and children will be raised until work.
In 1881, DuPont again added a mandatory rule that no employee could enter a new or rebuilt factory until the top management had operated it himself. DuPont should reflect direct responsibility and reflect the importance of safety from management. In 1912, DuPont established a safety data statistics system, and safety management moved from qualitative management to quantitative management.
In the 1940s, DuPont came up with the idea that "all accidents can be prevented." With the advancement of technology, the improvement of management, and the attention of people, all accidents have a way to prevent them. In the 1950s, DuPont introduced an off-the-job safety program, the company recognized that there is no essential difference between the safety impact of employees outside 8 hours and within 8 hours, and the safety education of employees within 8 hours cannot meet the needs of establishing safety awareness for employees, so it launched this set of programs. Although the program is affected by privacy protections abroad, DuPont still finds ways to actively involve employees.
DuPont's corporate safety philosophy
A DuPont executive said: "Safety is what DuPont must do, there is no room for retreat, there is no bargaining." In addition, DuPont has its own company's famous saying: "The level of security you will achieve depends on the action you show your desire." ”
(DuPont Safety Culture Concept)
Technically, DuPont's safety management system mainly contains two parts, DuPont statistics found that employee unsafe behavior factors and process unsafe factors, respectively, accounted for about 4:1 in the proportion of safety accidents.
Behavioral safety
Employee safety behavior, safety performance, system management
The twelve elements of behavioral safety are: transparent and visible management commitment, practical policies, comprehensive safety organization, challenging safety objectives, linear management responsibilities, effective incentives, effective two-way communication, continuous training, effective inspections, competent safety professionals who can provide technical support and solve problems quickly, accident investigations, and high standards of safety regulations and procedures.
Process safety
Equipment management, process management
The fourteen process safety elements are: process safety information, process hazard analysis, operating procedures and safety practices, technical change processing, quality assurance, pre-start safety evaluation, mechanical integrity, equipment change management, training and performance, contractor, accident investigation, personnel change management, emergency plan response, and audit safety system.
Employee safety is the core of DuPont's safety philosophy, in DuPont company", "the pencil should not be inserted upwards, in order to prevent hurting people"; "do not make loud noise, so as not to cause others to be nervous" and other seemingly cumbersome regulations, in fact, also reflect DuPont's concern for employees' right to life and health. Outside-work safety behavior management is DuPont's unique safety culture, DuPont believes that outside of work injuries, not only damage the interests of employees and families, but also affect the normal operation of the company, so DuPont requires employees to still do safety first in their time outside of work.
The DuPont experience can be broadly summarized into 4 aspects
One is DuPont's safety culture
DuPont regards "safety, health and the environment" as one of its core values. Their understanding of safety is that safety has obvious value, not just a project, system or training course. Safety is closely related to the performance of enterprises, and safety is a habitual and institutionalized behavior. To this day, the safety behavior of DuPont people can be seen in the results of its cultural construction: to go up and down the stairs to handrails, the first thing to do after getting on the car is always to wear a seat belt, the first thing to hold a meeting or an activity is to let everyone know where the safe passage is. From these details, it can be seen that the construction of its safety culture has truly realized internalization in the heart and externalization in the form.
The second is DuPont's safety management concept
DuPont has established a set of safety management systems, requiring every employee to strictly adhere to the ten safety management concepts, that is, all accidents can be prevented, management at all levels should be directly responsible for their own safety, all safety operation hazards can be controlled, safe work is one of the conditions for employment, all employees must receive strict safety training, supervisors at all levels must conduct safety inspections, hidden dangers must be corrected in time, safety outside of work and safety inside work are equally important, and good safety creates good business Employee involvement is the key to safe work. It is precisely by adhering to this belief that by taking strict preventive measures, DuPont has formed a strict safety management system and achieved the goal of "zero hidden dangers, zero accidents, and zero casualties" in safety management.
The third is DuPont's safety management system
DuPont has developed a management plan around 22 elements of safety management. It includes 14 process safety management elements such as process safety information management, process hazard analysis, and process technology change management, and 8 behavioral safety elements such as management commitments, target indicators and plans, and comprehensive and efficient safety organizations. These elements are both relatively independent and closely related. DuPont has established an interlocking, rigorous and scientific management system around these elements, and woven an airtight safety protection network.
The fourth is DuPont's safety training
DuPont has a very mature safety training system. The company's safety training team is located all over the world, and DuPont's safety concept, safety system, and safety management have been formed into safety products and promoted everywhere, including workplace safety, ergonomics, contractor safety, asset efficiency and emergency response. At the same time, DuPont attaches great importance to the training of processes and hazardous substances, including process hazard analysis, process safety and risk management.
Some people say that if enterprises do not eliminate accidents, accidents will eliminate enterprises. After in-depth understanding of DuPont's safety concept, it is not difficult for us to find that safety has been the core value of DuPont, which is also the fundamental reason for DuPont's survival and development for more than 200 years, so we must learn first-class against the benchmark, and strive to improve ourselves, the next issue we will bring you the relevant interpretation of DuPont's safety management organization and responsibilities and basic theories, look forward to it together!