Environmental Health and Safety Management - Case Study Example

Environmental Health and safety Management Abstract Safety and health are some of the core aspects of a company’s effective and smooth functioning. Through safety performance and good health, the company ensures an industrial environment that is accident free. It has been a practice by most of the companies in the world to improve the occupational heath and safety awareness and are aiming at achieving high occupational health and safety performance in all aspects of their business activities. The implementation of occupational health and safety requires the companies to adopt a structured approach in the identification, evaluation and control of various hazards. The Coca Cola company has not been left behind in implementation of occupational health and safety management program in their business and manufacturing activities. Occupational Safety and Health Organization in Coca Cola Company The Coca Cola Company is rated as the biggest beverage company, manufacturer, marketer and distributor in the world of non-alcoholic beverage syrups and concentrates. It is also one of the largest corporations in the USA. The company is famous for its Coca Cola product invented in 1886 by Stith Pemberton. The formula for manufacturing the Coca Cola product and the brand were bought by Asa Candler in 1889. The Coca Cola Company was incorporated in 1892 and is now offering more than 400 brands. The company has expanded its market and is now in more than 200 countries serving 1.6 billion servings on a daily basis. The franchised distribution system which dates back to 1889 has helped the company increase its distribution and expand the market for the company’s products. In the franchised distribution system, the company produces a syrup concentrate and sells it to the bottlers all over the world holding exclusive territory. The headquarters of the company are in Atlanta, Georgia and current chairman is Muhtar Kent (Chang, 1997). A full measure of a company’s success is not only on its market share and profitability issues but also how well it cares for its staff and employees as well as the environmental concerns. To achieve an overall success, the company observes four principles: to enrich the workplace, to refresh the market place, to preserve the environment and to strengthen the community. It has been the concerns of the management for responsible stewardship therefore ensuring the safety of the employees, staff and community living in the environment the company operates in. the top management of Coca Cola company translates this principle by establishing a framework for managing the safety performance successfully throughout the world. The Coca Cola Company outlines a systematic approach to the management of safety and loss prevention. The approach embraces congruence with OHSAS 18001:1999, ability to leverage external resources while at the same time addressing the Coca Cola company’s unique requirements, congruence with quality management system for the Coca Cola company and performance standards simplification of the Coca Cola safety management system. Quality, safety and environmental management are the core facets of the company’s quality system (TCCQS). The elements of the management system which includes management system standards, policy statement and performance are aligned in a structural way in each of the facets. The safety management system standard of the company has standards corresponding to environmental and quality management. The various management systems can share programs in their implementation thus reducing the redundancy and the work needed in the implementation of other standards (Levy, 2006). This approach is particularly beneficial in implementation of TCCQS. The Coca Cola Company safety policy has five core values that affirms the company’s responsibilities and offers a guideline to all the company subsidiaries all over the world. The five values are supported by specific practices and requirements governing the daily operations of the company. They are the fundamentals of achieving results that are consistent with the company’s leadership goals. The five cores are as stipulated and explained below. The very first of the core values is the commitment of Coca Cola as a company. The company has committed towards protecting the public and workers throughout the organization. It is the belief of the company that, for there to be an effective safety management system, all the employees should be involved at all levels. The company’s officers, employees and managers take the responsibility of implementing the safety management system on a daily basis. The other value is compliance. The company is determined to integrate relevant safety practices into the daily operations of the company. Although there might be no specific regulatory requirements, the company operates in a responsible manner taking into consideration of the safety and loss prevention requirements as stipulated by the Coca Cola Company. The other value is minimizing impact while at the same time maximizing opportunity. The company has been involved in research work and the results of such research and new technology integration into the company’s systems work towards reducing the safety risks of the company’s operations, products, equipment and packages. This is in consideration of the associated profit or cost for each of the safety benefits. The Coca Cola Company has established, supported and maintained essential programs, activities and procedures therefore effectively identifying and controlling hazards that could possibly damage property, harm people, destroy the company’s image or cause loss to the business. The company has observed accountability for their actions. It has now been a consistent practice of the company to audit the safety and loss prevention practices and programs. The company goes ahead to document the findings and take the necessary improvement actions. Last but not the least is informing the stakeholders. The company has established strong mechanisms to effectively communicate with consumers, governments, employees, shareowners and other stakeholders in regard to safety performance. In regard to the safety management system implemented by the Coca Cola company, the top management of the various organizational units should establish, implement, document and maintain a safety management system and consistently improve its effectiveness. The top management of the company works closely with the bottlers companies to assist them implement the Safety management system of the Coca Cola Company or an equivalent. The company consistently updates the safety management system and the safety requirements to accommodate the changing technologies and realities through collaborations and consultations with loss prevention and loss managers at all the system levels and the external stakeholders. When developing new products, the company takes into consideration of the safety and loss prevention implications. The goals and objectives of the safety management system are loss prevention and safety aspects, legal and other requirements, objectives and targets and business planning. The loss prevention and safety aspects are the processes, activities, services or products interacting with people or property both off and on the site. Safety and loss prevention impacts are any changes to the public health, worker or safety, or to the physical assets whether beneficial or adverse, partially or wholly which results from an organizations services, products or activities (International Occupational Safety and Health Information Centre, 2001). The top management of the various organizational units has the obligation of establishing and maintaining procedures identifying the safety and loss prevention aspects of its services, products or activities that it controls or can control and over which it has influence or is expected to have influence in determining the practices that will or can have significant effects on the public safety or workers. The process of identifying the significant safety and loss prevention aspects that are associated with operating units’ activities should consider: safety of site contractors and visitors, and worker safety; public safety; chronic and acute heath implications; maintenance preservation of company assets; and various community issues (Chaturvedi, Quality Council of India & Safety and Quality Forum, 2006). These considerations should include: non routine and routine activities; activities of all the people accessing the workplace including visitors and sub contractors; incident and accident investigations; safety inspections that are periodic in nature; hazard assessments; occupational; health exposures or risks associated with activities at the work place; and assessments of probability of natural hazards like hurricane and earthquakes. The organization’s methodology for identifying risk and assessing risk is defined according to the scope, timing and nature in ensuring that it is proactive rather than reactive. The process also provides for the risks classification and identification for the risks to be controlled or eliminated. The management ensures consistency in operating experience and risk control measures. The company is committed to conducting business through means and ways that will ensure that the employees are in a safe and healthy work environment. The Coca Cola safety management system defines the systematic approach used in managing the occupational safety, health and loss prevention. All the global subsidiaries of the company operate under common standards and requirements. The Coca Cola company safety management system complies with the international recognized safety managements system which requires that a company commits to public and visitors safety. However the safety management system implemented by Coca Cola Company is unique in that it recognizes the mitigation controls and risks unique to the company’s operations. The safety management system incorporates environment, occupational health and safety, loss prevention and quality into a single framework. TCCSMS defines a set of controls that help in managing known aspects and operational risks (Coca Cola, 2010). Full implementation of the controls has ensured that Coca Cola Company provides a workplace that meets international standards. The controls touch on all aspects of the company ranging from structures, procedures, processes and equipment. TCCSMS has established an internal audit to help in ensuring that the company effectively implements the management routines and operational controls. Also the company engages external auditors for assessment of the compliance status of the manufacturing operation in regard to the applicable regulations and laws. The company engages the external auditors to ensure that the occupational heath, safety and loss prevention are complied with. Its has been the practice of Coca Cola company and its subsidiaries to train the company’s associates using the training procedures outlined in the Coca Cola company safety management system as a global baseline. The training conducted on the associates covers periodic refresher training and new hire induction for all the associates and workers working as agents to the company. The company should always ensure that the workers in the manufacturing plant wear protective garments like overalls and aprons. This is to protect their clothes from used oil or grease on the manufacturing plants surface. It is also the responsibility of the management to give the workers working in the manufacturing unit protective gears to protect their hearing system. The sound of the manufacturing plant may impair the employees thus the need for protection of their hearing system (Chaturvedi & Chaturvedi, 2007). The management should look for the best practices to be used in disposing of the bottles that have been damaged. When the distribution lorry is involved in an accident, there is usually bottles that are damaged and breaks. If not well disposed off, the pieces can cause fatal accidents to the people living in the surrounding of the environment where the accident took place. It is the responsibility of the Coca Cola Company to educate the public in regard to the broken bottles disposal (osha.gov, 2010). As a multinational company, Coca Cola Company has the obligation of taking good care of the environment. The exhausts from the company’s manufacturing unit and the distribution vehicles should be kept to low levels to minimize the level of pollution of the environment. The disposal of factory wastes and by products should be carried out in the best possible means taking into consideration the environmental impacts resulting from those activities. This should be extended to the users of the Coca Cola company products for lack of doing so will not be beneficial at all to the end user. References Chang H. (1997), Coca Cola Company, Hayward, California State University. Chaturvedi P. (ed.) & Chaturvedi P. (2007), Occupational Safety, Health & Environment And Sustainable Economic Development, New Delhi, Concept Publishing Company. Chaturvedi P., Quality Council of India & Safety and Quality Forum (2006), Challenges of occupational safety and health: thrust: safety in transportation (illustrated), New Delhi, Concept Publishing Company. Coca Cola (2010), Quality retrieved on 18th August 2010, http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/citizenship/quality.html International Occupational Safety and Health Information Centre (2001), Safety and health at work, ILO-CIS bulletin, Volume 15, Michigan, International Occupational Safety and Health Information Centre. Levy B. S. (2006), Occupational and environmental health: recognizing and preventing disease and injury (5th edition, illustrated), London, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins publishers. Osha.gov (2010), Occupational safety & health administration, retrieved on 18th August5 2010, http://www.osha.gov/ Read More