Edition No. 14
And the Survey Says…
Results from the 2nd Annual Priority Press Industry Survey
With the summer issue of Priority Press, we launched our second industry survey which, we are happy to report, received much response. We promised that the results would be included in an upcoming issue. So, here they are—keep reading because we found some pretty interesting trends.
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The Universe
Priority Press has a subscriber base of 6,500 + readers. Nearly 11% of our readers responded (standard response levels are typically 1-2%). This is up 2% over last year’s response rate. The majority of our readers are Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) professionals so responses reflect opinions relative to the EHS field.
The top eight industries represented by respondents were: Manufacturing, Biotech, Chemical / Petroleum, Government, Healthcare, Insurance / Financial, Semiconductor and Semiconductor Equipment.
Company-wide Initiatives
The survey kicks-off with a big picture question: Which of the following management initiatives is your company planning or currently doing? Possible responses include: Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, ISO or other Management Systems, Business Integration, 5-S, and Other.
Of the respondents answering this question, these are the top three initiatives:
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65.6% selected ISO or other Management Systems
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Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing were the next closest, both at 31%
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1: Current or Planned Company Initiatives
Although companies focusing on ISO or other Management Systems remain about the same as last year, those implementing Six Sigma and/or Lean Manufacturing initiatives show an increase of about 4%.
Initiatives mentioned multiple times in the Other section included Behavior-Based Safety/Leadership, OSHA VPP, and Responsible Care.
Current EHS Initiatives
Our next question was: What are the top 3-5 EHS initiatives your company is addressing today? Respondents had the option of checking multiple answers.
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As illustrated in Chart 2, the top five EHS initiatives that companies are addressing today are, in order of preference:
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Hazard Analysis & Risk Assessment
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Ergonomics
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Safety Leadership
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EHS Management Systems (ISO / OHSAS / VPP) Certification Planning
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EHS Strategic Planning & New Program Implementation
These results are nearly identical to last year’s; however, Hazard Analysis and Risk Assessment was added as a new choice to the survey this year. Clearly this initiative seems to resonate with respondents. Other responses include: Operational Excellence, Emergency Planning, and Product Design / Environmental Integration.
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2: Current EHS Initiatives
What’s Coming Up?
With the changing economic and political climate, we asked readers: What are the top 3-5 EHS initiatives your company is focusing on over the next 18 months? Respondents again had the option of checking multiple answers.
Possible responses were the same as in Question 2.
Of the responses received, listed below are the top five initiatives that those companies surveyed plan to invest in. Ranked from highest to lowest percentage, they are:
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Hazard Analysis & Risk Assessment
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Safety Leadership
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EHS Strategic Planning & New Program Implementation
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Ergonomics
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EHS Management Systems (ISO, OHSAS, VPP) Certification Preparation
Again, these results are nearly the same as last year’s;
however, Hazard Analysis and Risk Assessment was added as a new
choice to the survey this year. Other responses include:
Emergency Preparedness, Operational Excellence, and Waste Reduction.
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3: Future EHS Initiatives
Your Company’s Ergo Program
We were interested to see how respondents viewed their existing ergonomics program and whether it met the needs of their company. Respondents graded their company’s ergo program on a Very Satisfied to Not Applicable scale.
Based on responses to this question, the majority of our readers (57%) are satisfied with their existing ergo program; only 7% said that they didn’t have an ergonomics program currently in place.
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4: Ergonomics Program
Increasing Profitability
In today’s business environment, companies are working to produce more with less, while trying to maintain or increase shareholder value. Within most companies, each department shares the burden of developing programs to control or cut expenses. We asked our readers: How is your company working to increase its profitability? The choices given were: Strategic Sourcing, Implementing Business Optimization Programs, Outsourcing, and Other.
More than half (55%) said their companies are implementing Business Optimization programs like Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, and GE Workouts. Thirty-one percent responded that Outsourcing is another way of increasing profitability at their company.
Other responses included: Cutting overhead, Balanced Scorecard, and enhanced or new marketing campaigns or programs.
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5: Increasing Profitability
Your Team’s Contribution
Employee involvement plays a key role in a company’s quest to achieve, maintain, or increase profitability. Our next question asked: What are you and your team doing to help your company improve profitability? Respondents chose from the following: Water or Energy Conservation, Scrap or Operating Supplies Reduction, Outsourcing, Waste Reduction and Recycling, Global Product Take-back, and Other Process Improvements.
The majority of our respondents (67%) said Waste Reduction and Recycling programs are their team’s contribution to increasing profitability. Energy conservation (55%) was another way many teams are helping their companies save money.
Other process improvements our readers are using include: Elimination of operational redundancies, Six Sigma improvements, RoHS compliance, and ISO implementation.
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6: Your Team's Contribution
Responding to Customer Inquiries
Communication is a critical aspect of customer satisfaction. The next question asked, How does your company respond to customer inquiries regarding product hazard material content? The choices given were: product level content disclosure, response through supply chain, Declaration of Conformity, or Other.
As you can see in the following chart, most companies (46.5%) inform their customers about process hazard material content through product level content disclosures. However, 21% of respondents selected the Other category. Fifteen percent of these stated that their companies provide this information through Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs).
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7: Responding to Customer Inquiries
We’d Like to Read About…
This last question was more open-ended, asking readers what topics they’d like to see in upcoming issues of Priority Press. Our thanks to those who took the time to offer some really interesting topic ideas. Based on your input, hazard analysis and risk assessment, EHS management issues and trends, safety management, and ergonomics are just a few of the subjects we plan to write about in 2006. In fact, included in this issue, are articles on Process Hazard Analysis and boosting EHS value.
Once again, we appreciate the survey responses and comments from you, our readers. As always, it’s interesting to learn about the kinds of EHS initiatives you are currently working on and planning for in the future. The next issue of Priority Press, with articles on building EHS value in an organization (including an interesting case study), ergonomics, and safety management, is scheduled to be out in early December.
In the meantime, if you have additional questions on the Priority Press Industry Survey, please direct them to prioritypress@eorm.com.
More Information:
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