For American manufacturing operations, finding ways to cut costs and improve the bottom line is a new reality. With intense pressure to produce economic results, survival is often questionable as companies struggle to compete in the global marketplace.  With higher wages, higher cost of medical benefits and higher costs to get goods to market, American manufacturers battle to compete and succeed in a global economy where foreign countries can produce quality goods at a lower cost to the consumer.

Where do manufacturing companies look to cut costs and improve financial results? With often risky environments with industrial equipment and dangerous chemicals, manufacturing plants look at safety practices to decrease employees’ costs such as time off and medical expenditures and increase productivity. When workers get injured on the job, the financial impact on the plant is direct and immediate. With a variety of potential cost cutting initiatives possible, safety programs implemented on the employee level can yield financial payoffs.

Start by enlisting employees to join management in evaluating safety hazards and the year’s safety shortfalls. Where were the most accidents and injuries? Where were the most expensive, most dangerous accidents? What injuries impact multiple workers? Focusing on high impact areas can have broad based impact on the entire workforce. Employees usually have great ideas about how to improve the safety of a work area and frequently the ideas from employees are simple and relatively inexpensive.

With minimal investment, first aid stations installed strategically throughout the plant work to increase the first responder’s ability to manage injuries and accidents and can decrease the level of severity of potential hazardous situations. Improved protective clothing could have long term affects on employees’ safety by providing latest technologies, improving range of motion and with lighter weight materials.  Requiring hard hats and protective work gloves for all workers are simple requirements but could save employees in the event of accident in the workplace.

Simple improvements or investments often yield huge results. Protective eye wear are a low cost piece of equipment and necessary to protect workers eyes in the event of splashed chemicals or flying debris. Providing prescription protective eyewear could improve a worker’s vision on the job and be easier to use instead of wearing glasses and safety goggles. The easier to use a piece of equipment, the more likely an employee will actually use the equipment thus improving its effectiveness.  Similarly, providing face shields and ear protection are simple safety standards but could save employees from injuries common in manufacturing environments.

Are employees reporting injuries after lifting and packing products? Having carts and hand tracks available in the material handling areas can decrease back injuries from improper carrying of materials. Employees moving packages as a job might benefit from a system of conveyors set up to bear the weight of bulky packages and heavy products. Decreasing the incidence of back injuries can decrease the number of days an employee takes off from work or having to offer modified duty work thus decreasing efficiency.

Industrial supplies make employees jobs easier and can improve productivity. Productivity throughout the manufacturing plant increases when employees have the equipment to safely perform his or her job. Due to the employees’ preparation and positive feelings toward the employer, employee and management communication can improve and lead to other employee suggestions positively impacting the organization as a whole. Simple safety improvements can save money on worker’s compensations costs, medical costs related to work place injuries and workers taking unexpected time off.

American products are suffering in a market place where foreign competitors can produce similar products with similar quality at a lower cost. This phenomenon has spurred American manufacturers to cut costs wherever possible. Reevaluating the safety practices of a manufacturing plants and investing in simple improvements often lead to great cost savings and financial gains.