FIRST: Safety
After Successful 2017,
Safety Audit Team Looks to the Future
www.martinmarietta.com | November/December 2017 The Conveyor 3
They’re questions that should be
asked daily at every operation:
Are we committed to our Guardian
Angel principles? Are we engaged in
upstream safety activities? Are we
regularly offering safety suggestions
to our supervisors and co-workers?
Martin Marietta’s Safety Audit
Team crisscrossed the country in
2017, posing these questions and
others to hundreds of company
employees at dozens of operations.
As the team’s first year draws to a
close, its members are evaluating
their successes and planning for a
busy year ahead.
“Our mission was to bring worldclass
safety to operations across the
board,” says Mid-Atlantic Division HR/
Safety Manager and Auditor Chris
Kearnes. “We found a large number of
strengths at every site we visited and
a number of what we called opportunities,
which we pointed out as a way
to educate employees about how
they could be doing things better. In
many cases, we learned some best
practices as well that we then brought
back to our divisions. It was a true
sharing of ideas.”
The Audit Team conducted 12
audits in 2017 while visiting more than
30 company sites across multiple
divisions. In total, more than 650
employees were surveyed during the
process, which provided leadership at
each site with an accurate and timely
Safety Managers Larry
Ratliff (left) and Jess
Gandy work during an
audit of the Midlothian
Cement Plant in Texas.
lines and it helps spread best
practices. As the Audit Team moves
forward, it will remain committed to
the basics of safety and will encourage
all of our employees to share that
commitment. It will remind teams at
site after site that we must never take
our eyes off the ball when it comes
to safe work.” ▼
assessment of its safety culture.
Dirk Cox, plant manager at
Midlothian Cement, says the experience
of having the Audit Team review
the Texas plant was “humbling and
invigorating.” In the months afterward,
members of the Midlothian team
analyzed their own site procedures,
changed rewards programs and sent
some of their employees to other
operations to learn firsthand what it
takes to create and maintain a vibrant
safety culture. Georgia’s Junction
City Quarry – a 2017 Diamond Award
winner – was among those sites.
“What they have accomplished at
Junction City is amazing and really so
simple,” Cox says. “They demand, as
a group, that everyone look out for
each other. Everyone participates in
safety – not just when it’s convenient,
but all the time, on every job.”
With a year of success under its
belt, the Audit Team moves into 2018
with strong support from corporate
and divisional leadership says
Vice President of Safety and Health
Michael Hunt, the Audit Team’s
leader. That backing, he says, should
enable the team to perform at least
24 audits next year while visiting
about 40 company locations. While
their mission is growing, Hunt says it
will not change.
“The audit process is beneficial on
so many levels,” he says. “It enhances
awareness. It breaks down divisional
The Safety
Audit Team is:
Jeff Cross
Joe Davis
Jess Gandy
Michael Hunt
Chris Kearnes
Jeff McIntosh
Jimmy Nance
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