Owens Corning Linnton Asphalt facility was accepted into the Voluntary Protection Program (VPP)
sponsored by the Oregon's Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OR-OSHA). The
team from Linnton, Ore., are excited at being the first Owens Corning facility to be granted VPP Star
status under the program.
Work sites that achieve VPP Star status must pass a rigorous on-site evaluation by a team of OSHA
safety and health experts. Of the millions of work sites in the U.S., fewer than 1,800 have been accepted
into VPP.
The Linnton team worked very hard for two years prior to receiving the certification.
Linnton is an asphalt processing facility with
about 15 employees. Linnton is the only asphalt manufacturing facility in the U.S. to achieve VPP Star status
and only the 16th VPP Star site in Oregon.
I performed a safety study to look at all areas of the rail unloading operation. The obvious issue was no fall protection. With most injuries within the US caused from falls, we must act now. Through the study, we found many vendors that would offer complete catwalk systems with railings and bridges, but these were big capitol investments. We needed a cost effective solution for the pain we were experiencing. Though the design safety review process we would purchase an aerial lift with an installed an OSHA approved swing gate. We would then use retractable fall arrest equipment to access the top of the railcar, without compromising the safety of the facilities employees. Not only was this a fall protection issue removed, but we also ordered an onboard generator for the aerial lift to provide power tools at the top of the railcar, thus eliminating repetitive motion and stress injuries caused by using hand tools.
Finding a practical solution to this issue was needed immediately. In order for any maintenance to be completed on the pump including greasing it the pump would have to be shut down and locked out. This put undo stress on the operators and rushed the maintenance personnel creating even more risk. After assessing all pumps in the facility, we found that we could design parts that attached to the pump and yet allowed for the complete PM process without shutdown. Customer demand was met by implementing a solution to their needs while keeping their customers happy. Employee moral was improved by giving them the tools they needed to feel valuable and efficient.