Employee Safety
We relentlessly strive to ensure our workforce returns home safely every day. We contribute toward a global environment where people can live safe, healthy and productive lives. Safety is forefront in our strategic goals and metrics, with visible commitment and support of leadership. We believe the best way to drive a culture of safety excellence is to create an environment where each person and team is accountable for their own safety and the safety of those around them. Additionally, we nurture a culture of learning in which we continually enhance safety through training and experiences.
Creating Accountability for Everyone
We believe safety is both management and employee led. From practical expertise, our employees can create and champion their own safety improvements. We provide every employee, especially newly hired employees, with knowledge to perform their job safely, and leaders regularly receive training on safety compliance and setting an example for a strong safety culture. These actions help us manage risk while creating a culture focused on learning, speaking up and protecting those around us.
We track enterprise metrics and targets as well as individual business unit goals. Common enterprise targets create structure and accountability, while business unit strategies focus on safety culture to create opportunities for innovation. We drive clear accountability with our EHS management system, that establishes expectations worldwide.
Safety Performance
We improved our recordable injury frequency (RIF) rate by 17% from our 2018 base year, although our performance declined by 7% in 2022 from 2021. This performance came on the heels of the pandemic and during a period of rapid growth in our operations that included hiring a significant number of new employees. While we are proud of our progress, we are also deeply saddened that an employee suffered a fatal workplace injury at one of our facilities during the year. This incident highlights that safety must always remain our focus and further strengthens our safety resolve.
Setting the Bar Higher
As we pursue our 2030 goal, business unit leaders are engaged in our safety vision. We are strengthening Caterpillar’s safety focused culture, further enhanced by encouraging employee involvement in partnering with leaders to develop safety solutions. Feedback, problem solving dialogue and initiatives foster increased trust and collective ownership. Providing safety learning opportunities for our leaders, safety professionals and employees enhances our efforts. Our goal is challenging but is vitally important as we focus on the safety of our employees.
Improving Ergonomics in India
At our Caterpillar India Private Limited facility in Thiruvallur, a team including engineering, safety and management worked alongside our shop floor employees to improve ergonomics throughout the assembly processes. Through a variety of lifting tables and devices, we eliminated high-risk lifting activities. We also developed a governance dashboard to confirm the improvements are sustained. As a result, ergonomic risk decreased, efficiency improved and employees were engaged in enhancing the safety of their area.
MAKING ELECTRIC DRIVES, SAFELY
Introducing electric drives to construction machinery brings challenges in fire control, storage and emergency response. To support safe implementation, a cross-functional team from safety, purchasing, quality, logistics, operations and engineering developed a safety manual to guide the manufacturing process. The manual was developed using industry best practices, and the team conducted a pilot to enhance its effectiveness.
Goal
We aspire to prevent all injuries and will further our industry-leading safety results by reducing RIF by 50% from 2018 to 2030.
improvement in recordable injury frequency from 2018
