Creating Safety as a Value and a Way of Life

JGC and Fluor, as joint venture partners, are performing the engineering, procurement, and construction of the 1.5 million metric tons per year ethane cracker and associated offsite components at Chevron Phillips Chemical’s existing Cedar Bayou complex in Baytown, Texas, USA.

The peak construction manpower will exceed 4,000 employees including many young workers for which this is their first construction job. Overcoming the workforce’s youth and industry inexperience to achieve an outstanding project safety performance has represented a substantial challenge.

This paper describes how the Project Management Team developed a successful safety culture by implementing an Incident and Injury-Free® program (IIF®) to build strong relationship among all the organizations, cultivate a strong bond between employees (the “Big Family” approach), and achieve everyone’s commitments to maintain safe work environment.

The project formed a Worker Engagement Task Force to aid in the development of a stronger safety culture from employee volunteers who exhibited a strong passion for safety. The objectives of the task force were to develop an employee attitude that is not only being more personally responsible for safety but also as well as for others. Developing a culture in which employees enthusiastically choose to follow the safety rules, reach out to others to work together safely, and respect and care for each other, like a family.

This task force improved employee participation in the safety program, helped identify and correct many unsafe acts and conditions by stepping-up without fear or hesitation.

By interacting with positive reinforcement in this project, JGC and Fluor created safety as a value and a way of life. A new safety culture took root, not only on this project, but in the lives of all employees and their families.

Keywords: Incident and Injury-Free®, IIF®, safety culture, commitment