Bringing Home the Chemical Industry Federation's Safety Award

Nokian Heavy Tyres Ltd won the large companies’ category as the Chemical Industry Federation of Finland presented its annual Safety Award for exemplary safety work in companies on April 13, 2021. This was the fifth year of the Safety Award.

Among other things, the jury thanked Nokian Heavy Tyres for the strong commitment to the safety improvements by the company's senior management, which enabled the personnel to also commit to the change.

In 2016, Nokian Heavy Tyres had an accident frequency of 53, whereas today the number is zero. After that, Nokian Heavy Tyres has been able to celebrate accident-free year, twice.

- Our entire personnel took safety as their top priority. Cooperation within the personnel has been the key cornerstone of our success, says Safety manager Antti Viitasaari from Nokian Heavy Tyres.

The award gives important recognition to the fact that focusing on cooperation and people is the right choice.

Safety manager Antti Viitasaari from Nokian Heavy Tyres

 

Nokian Heavy Tyres safety steps in practice

Initially, Heavy Tyres emphasized what is known as reactive industrial safety work. Once the accident frequency rate dropped, it allowed the company to focus on proactive work towards safety. In 2021, a lot of time has been spent on site-specific risk assessments, for example.

Proactive safety work has been developed by focusing on cooperation and developing the employees' safety skills and know-how.

“This provides more tools and know-how for individual decision making. It also enables us to avoid disturbance, and increase our perseverance in case of any disturbances,” Safety Manager Viitasaari emphasizes.

Each year, all of the employees take part in a minimum of two day training, where safety is an important topic.

Many different work stages have also been made safer. According to industrial safety representative Ari Niemelä, various hazards have been eliminated by technical means after assessing whether the tools or protective equipment in use are suitable for the purpose.

“Succeeding at safety has motivated our personnel to make improvements and more safety observations of their working environment. They have also become more inclined to report defects,” says Niemelä.

Nokian Heavy Tyres has also successfully transferred its good safety culture to its subsidiary wheels manufacturer Levypyörä Oy.

Big thanks to our entire staff who have made the right choices in terms of safety. With a good team, developing an even safer work environment is a joy,” says Manu Salmi, Senior Vice President for Nokian Heavy Tyres.

Safety is a top priority for the entire staff of Nokian Heavy Tyres.

 

We congratulate all Safety Award winners!