Take down the fence

Here's how DuPont works with contractors to assure safe, efficient jobsites. Its six-step plan takes down the fence between the contractor and the owner, improving safety and job efficiency.

by Clair Urbain

“When you go to work on rehab jobsites, there’s usually a chain-link fence between the contractor and the rest of the facility. That fence is physical, but there are often figurative fences that stand between the contractor and the owner,” says Gary Drumheller, president of Snyder, Crompton & Associates (SC&A).

SC&A offers construction management and general contracting services in the greater Delaware area. One of its key customers is E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (DuPont), based in Wilmington, Delaware.

DuPont has a long safety history. Based on a corporate goal established in 1911, the company strives to assure its workplaces are as safe as possible. Its corporate injury and illness rates are one-tenth common industry averages.

As the corporate safety committee reviewed accident statistics in the early ’90s for its employees it decided to track contractor injuries and illnesses in the same manner. It found contractors working on jobs at DuPont’s research and production facilities could reduce their injury and illness rates, recalls Drumheller. DuPont officials started asking Drumheller questions on how this could be done.

Part of the construction culture
“It’s getting better, but everyone in the construction industry accepted injuries and fatalities as a part of the culture of working in construction. Some even wore it as a badge of honor. No one liked that aspect, but it has been a very difficult attitude to address,” Drumheller says.

DuPont’s safety officials listened intently. They wanted to get to the core problems facing contractors working on their sites to help reduce accidents.

From that initial conversation, DuPont and selected area contractors developed the Partners In Safety (PINS) program. This program set up a process by which DuPont could fairly select contractors on their ability to work safely and complete jobs efficiently. Once contractors are selected, the program assures ongoing dialog so work can be completed as safely and efficiently as possible.

How the PINS program works
After 10 years, the PINS program is very firmly established at DuPont sites in the Wilmington, Delaware, area, says Bob Krzywicki, senior consultant with DuPont’s Safety Resource business unit. In fact, the process has been so successful that the DuPont Safety Resource division consults with companies worldwide on how to implement it as well as other safety programs in their facilities.

“We have seen tremendous savings from our contractor safety program. The six-step process has produced a total recordable frequency rate of 0.76 in 2000,” he says.

For comparison, the Bureau of Labor Statistics pegs the 1999 average recordable frequency rate for industry at 2.0. “This has resulted in estimated annual savings of $6 million on insurance costs for contractors,” he says.

The DuPont Contractor Safety program follows six well-planned steps.

Step 1: Contractor selection
DuPont has built a list of pre-qualified contractors that have gone through a rigorous selection process, says Krzywicki.

“Contractors are selected on an objective and subjective basis. We look at their past performance, their insurance modification rate, their safety training programs in place and how they train their workers. We don’t just look at their numbers because there are some weaknesses in them. Statistics can be manipulated. We look very closely at the contractor’s critical processes like audit processes, how it investigates near-misses and how it has built and implemented its training programs.

“We want to work with companies who understand the business side of safety. We have seen again and again that a contractor who can work safely is also the one who can deliver in all areas, including cost, quality and meeting schedules. It rarely works the other way around,” says Krzywicki.

Although a contractor may make the pre-qualified list, there is no guarantee it will always get jobs from DuPont. The selection process becomes more diligent as the project complexity and inherent dangers increase. “We look closely at the job tasks and then look at how the contractor has done such jobs in the past. That’s where the subjective measures play a large role in contractor selection,” Krzywicki says.

Step 2: State safety expectations
in all contractor documents
DuPont specifically outlines its safety requirements in every part of the contractor selection process.

“So many contracts contain a boilerplate item that states the contractor must meet local, state and federal safety requirements while doing the job. It’s often buried within the document. Our contracts specifically state safety expectations for the job.

“For example, if scaffold will be used, we specifically state what training is required and how it will be monitored. If the contractor will be working around electricity or energized systems or powered equipment, we specifically state the safety requirements for those areas. The most important point to remember is if you put it in your documents, be prepared to enforce it,” Krzywicki says.

When the PINS group began, it found that DuPont had inconsistent safety requirements for contractors at each of its plants.

“We pointed out that we are more than willing to meet safety guidelines, but each DuPont plant in the Delaware valley required something different,” says Drumheller. So DuPont developed a consistent set of safety regulations that are the basis of working at all plant construction sites in the area.

Finally, Krzywicki says stating your safety requirements in your requests for proposals does not add cost to the process. “Highlighting safety expectations does not increase costs; these are things the contractor should be doing already. If they are not doing them or balk at doing them, why would you want to work with them, anyway?” he asks.

Step 3: Communicate 
expectations at pre-award meetings
“Whenever we go over job specifications with contractors, we verbally reinforce the need for the contractor to account for safety in their quotes. We make it an agenda item at every meeting. The contractor that shows the initiative and understands the safety ramifications and includes that in the bid is most likely to get the business. We will never refuse to listen to a contractor that can justify its quote based on safety requirements,” Krzywicki says.

Step 4: Schedule orientation and training for the job
Once jobs are awarded, DuPont continues to work with the contractor to assure its safety training covers the job needs.

The basis for all workers starts with the PINS/OSHA card that DuPont requires all workers to have before they can work on any of its jobsites.

“The PINS/OSHA card shows that the worker has been through the training program we set up with our area technical college,” says Drumheller. “The course covers material in the OSHA 10-hour course, plus six additional hours of safety training required by DuPont. The school affiliation gives the card credibility. In fact, other companies in the area are now requiring the PINS/OSHA training for workers coming onto their sites,” he adds.

On top of the PINS/OSHA card, every worker must always wear a hard hat, eye protection and have read and possess a copy of the DuPont Contractor Safety Handbook. This pocket-sized reference summarizes the basics taught in the PINS/OSHA course.

Contractors are also required to implement job-specific training for workers. “For every job, contractors must complete a Job Plan and Safety Task Analysis (STA) form,” says Drumheller (see pages 20 and 22 for examples).

While a blueprint may tell what needs to be done, the STA helps the job superintendent develop a plan on how to actually do the job. He reviews the job, identifies the processes and associated safety concerns, then prescribes a safety plan.

Once the plan is written, it’s posted at the jobsite and any worker on that part of the job must read it and sign off on it. If the job outlined on the form lasts longer than 10 days, the form must be reviewed and updated.

“It really makes the jobsite supervisor plan the work and assure all safety components and permits are in place,” Drumheller says. “When we’ve had an incident, invariably we find out it’s because we have deviated from the work plan,” says Drumheller.

Daily huddles are critical to jobsite safety. Here, foremen get together and go over the STAs. They highlight jobs that could present dangers to other workers and help them coordinate work to minimize risks and improve productivity. “The foremen then take the information back to their crews so they know what’s going on,” says Drumheller.

Step 5: Audit and monitor the job
“If you adequately address safety issues in the first four steps, any changes at this point should be minor,” says Krzywicki. “It is important to audit the job to assure the safety processes are followed.”

Drumheller says DuPont will shut down jobsites because safety practices aren’t being strictly followed.

“Recently, DuPont shut down all work at its jobsites because there was an increase in reportable incidents,” says Drumheller. “When we looked at the causes, it turned out contractors and subcontractors were all scrambling for tradesmen and the workers on the sites weren’t properly trained. Every worker was brought in and DuPont officials gave a presentation on why it’s important they complete the safety training and follow the job plan and safety task analysis,” he says.

Contractor “stand-downs” of this type help assure safety compliance, adds Krzywicki.

Step 6: Formally assess project safety 
throughout the job and when it’s completed
“This really is an exercise in continuous improvement,” says Krzywicki. “It’s a structured time when the owner and the contractor take a step back and talk about what works and what doesn’t work.”

Because the complexion of work on a jobsite changes, Krzywicki says the assessment should be completed about every six weeks and at the end of the job. “It should be across the total scope of the work. If the owner doesn’t ask about an area, the contractor should. This is a good way to find out how to prevent pitfalls and find ways to incorporate what worked well into other jobs.”

What’s in it for contractors
Contractors tend to be independent types who don’t particularly like to be told how to do a job. But, Drumheller says, they are also motivated by profit, and for his company, improving safety performance has helped SC&A’s bottom line.

“In the first year we worked with DuPont on the PINS program, we documented our safety processes. That exercise alone helped us get a $45,000 rebate from our insurance company. We were a much smaller company then, and we took that money and gave it to our workers through our profit-sharing program. That created a value to the safety process and workers bought into the concept even more,” he says.

Ten years later, Drumheller also sees other benefits to meeting and exceeding DuPont’s high safety standards.

“The PINS process sets up a very helpful dialog with DuPont. We become more of a partner. Under this program, if DuPont wants a project completed in 100 days and we feel we can’t do it safely, we can raise that concern. Under conventional bid processes, you can’t raise that objection.”

The greatest benefit from the PINS program: Workers remain healthy and productive on the jobsite and strive to help others be safe, also.

“Because we have a level playing field when it comes to safety, we see a higher level of camaraderie across the contractors. If one sees another worker doing something that could cause an accident, they are more willing to call the worker on it and suggest ways they can complete the job safely. We all consider ourselves to be the cream of the crop and we work to help each other work safely,” says Drumheller.

SC&A’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. In 1994, DuPont presented Drumheller its coveted Gold Plumb Bob Award for Safety for his efforts to improve contractor safety. Recently, the Association of Building Contractors also recognized SC&A for its dedication to safety.

"As a contractor from the ’80s, we just figured that accidents were a part of construction. When DuPont told us they wanted accidents reduced to zero, we chuckled. We see that as entirely possible today,” Drumheller concludes.

Published in the May/June 2001 issue of Contractor Tools and Supplies magazine.

back to top