Connected safety technology and collective strategy gives asphalt plants over a million incident-free man hours and wins them award

Kokosing Materials Inc (KMI) operate 17 asphalt plants, along with a couple of asphalt cement terminals in Ohio. Recently they joined Blackline Collective, a program set up by Blackline Safety Corporation so that industrial organisations can share expertise, advice and experience on all matters relating to keeping people and assets safe. 

KMI see the physical, mental and emotional health of their team members as a top priority. They have brought about a familial-like safety ethos that has management making regular visits to all of the company’s locations and forging close relationships with the KMI personnel that is beyond just routine activities and ‘talking shop’.

According to Michael Farnsworth, KMI’s Safety Manager, “Achieving safety and operational excellence starts with treating your workforce as friends and family rather than a corporate resource. During my site visits, we talk with our team members about their work, but also their interests, opportunities and challenges, both professionally and outside of the workplace. This approach has led to a trusting environment where communication and self-accountability come naturally, leading to enhanced health, safety and wellbeing.”

A round-the-clock safety hotline has been set up for team members to report incidents that could have created risks to human health and how to overcome, learn and mitigate or eliminate potential hazards. This brings about a culture of constant improvement of practices while delivering great results; KMI’s team of 142 have worked over one million man-hours with no OSHA (US Occupational Safety and Health Association) recordable incidents. Each team member is monitored individually by wearing Blackline’s world-renown connected safety technology. This is done on a voluntary basis, but has been accepted by all as a way to ensure their own safety and that of their colleagues. The US’ National Asphalt Pavement Association have recently awarded KMI with a Safety Innovation Award for their highly successful worker-safety practices.