(Brian Hornyak, Sabre Demolition; Photo credit: Rob Kaufman)
The importance of safety was a point driven home by many speakers during the seventh annual Word Demolition Summit, Oct. 14, at the Marriott Biscayne Bay in Miami, Brian Hornyak, vice president, major projects for Sabre Demolition, Warners, New York, was among the speaker who addressed the topic. His specific area of discussion was around behavior-based demolition.
“Safety has to be at all levels of the company,” he told attendees. He asked them, “What level of safety and how mature is it at your company. What motivates your employees?”
He talked about the fatal 4, which are the top injuries causing fatalities in the construction industry, according to OSHA, they are:
- Electrical;
- Fall Protection;
- Struck-By; and
- Caught-In or -Between.
In his emphasis of behavior based programs, he encouraged the use of a loss prevention system. He directed attendees to the website, lpscenter.net.
The website describes the loss prevention system as “a comprehensive management system designed to prevent or reduce losses using behavior-based tools and proven management techniques.”
Hornyak said, the system allows for indicators to be developed and Sabre Demolition can show its clients. “It shows we are being proactive and not waiting for an incident to happen,” he said.
The system encourages a positive new culture and allows companies to capture other losses.
Hornyak said, the process shifted safety away from always being directed from our safety and made it “everybody’s job.”
Alerts and safety bulletins are use a lot with behavior based systems, according to Hornyak. He explained that the company wants crews to know what could have happened to they don’t have the same situation occur. He said, the approach has gotten a lot of positive feedback.
An example of a successful behavior-based safety occurred on a project in Rio de Janeiro, shared Hornyak. “That is a pretty good success story to be able to take behavior based safety [to another country]. If you can do it in another country with those hurdles, you can do it in your country” he said.
He asked attendees if they were involved in understanding the maturity level of their safety system. Everyone is motivated differently, he noted. He concluded by saying, “Behavior-based systems can help your company succeed.”
The World Demolition Summit, organized by U.K.-based KHL Group, publisher of Demolition & Recycling International, in cooperation with the National Demolition Association (NDA), Washington, was Oct. 14 in Miami.