HSE has always been an important focus area at Mantena. Now, the industrial company's HSE work will be further strengthened.
The transformation in the railway sector in recent years has led to new efficiency requirements, which in turn have increased the focus on safety and risk assessment. Marlene Furnes Bagley is the Head of HSE at Mantena. She is working to take the company's HSE efforts a step further. The main focus is on the follow-up of incidents and the related reporting.
– At Mantena, we are good at reporting incidents that have already occurred, but we can become even better at reporting near misses and potential incidents. Strengthening the culture for reporting and learning from the mistakes we make is an important part of this effort. Some people may have a somewhat uneasy relationship with the concept of nonconformities, both in terms of reporting them personally or being the recipient. It can sometimes be associated with something negative—making a mistake or not being good enough. This mindset needs to change. On the contrary, we can view a nonconformity as a gift, says Bagley. She believes that every deviation is a golden opportunity to discover what she calls "blind spots," to learn something new, and to continually improve.
Continuous improvement
Working effectively with HSE requires constant focus. What constituted good enough HSE work ten years ago may not necessarily be sufficient today. Bagley and her colleagues have taken this into account.
– The key to effective HSE work lies in continuous improvement. As a learning organization, we must therefore strive to become ever better and to continually share experiences. What happens in one workshop must be shared with our other workshops so that the same type of incident does not occur again. We must continuously analyze and identify the underlying causes of why things went wrong, and what we can do differently to prevent an incident from happening again. This mindset must be embedded throughout the organization.
Building an HSE culture
For Bagley and her colleagues, the focus on reporting and continuous improvement is about building a culture.
– For us, there is nothing more important than safety and ensuring our employees return home safely each and every day. We must not shy away from addressing things that did not go as planned, such as near misses and potential incidents. Risk assessments and reporting of nonconformities must be second nature to every employee. Our focus on HSE going forward is about building and strengthening the entire HSE culture within the organization from top to bottom.