FOTOFAX JANUARY, 1977
Discipline — What Does It Mean ?
Like many words in the English lan
guage, the word "discipline" has more than
one meaning. The dictionary gives us —
"training that develops self control, charac
ter or orderliness and efficiency," and also
"treatment that corrects or punishes." If
we look at the first part of the definition
and consider the aspect of self-discipline,
this is an area we all have developed to
varying degrees — whether it be in our
work habits, the way we utilize our time,
consideration of our health, etc. Essentially
in dealing with self-discipline we have an
ongoing, systematic and consistent ap
proach to various aspects of our life
which revolve around a set of personal
standards and goals we want to achieve.
Self-discipline easily lends itself to
safety and is an important consideration.
The discipline that must be developed
relative to safety is one which leads us to
always assess the hazards of any activity
we perform. The recognition of hazards
is not always a simple matter and requires
a lot of thought, effort and training. It is
often very easy to overlook hazards when
we become accustomed to performing a
task on a routine basis. What may seem
safe may in fact be very dangerous and we
don't recognize it.
By Frank Bunch, Assistant Plant Manager
Staff
Once the hazards have been recognized,
the next step is to discipline ourselves
to do whatever is reasonably possible to
eliminate or minimize the potential for
injury. This may include a review of the
safety practices and procedures already
established; involve the use of protective
equipment; a lock out; help from another
person if the job is too much for one; or
it may even mean not doing the task, but
calling on someone with special training
who can handle the situation safely.
Plant Work Practices Rated Poor to Fair
By Ray Miller
Plant Engineer
In keeping with the Du Pont philosophy
that a safe work environment and safe
work practices are equal in importance to
other objectives such as quality products,
customer satisfaction, high yields, etc.,
the Company has an independent audit
group known as the Safety and Fire
Protection Division (S & F) of the Corpor
ate Employee Relations Department. This
group annually audits plants across the
country to determine how well they are
meeting the Du Pont philosophy that
"All injuries can be prevented."
Safety and Fire Protection Division
surveys of the Brevard plant for the past
two years have rated our work practices
from poor to fair. Work practices are how
we go about doing our daily tasks at the
plant. Good work practice means the job
is done safely and efficiently.
To help us work safely, the plant has
published safety rules and regulations
which were found necessary, through past
experience, to consistently perform work
without unnecessary risk of injury. Ob
servance of these established rules and
procedures is essential to help form safe
work habits. In addition to rules, however,
each of us must exercise good judgement'
and use common sense at all times.
Some of the unsafe practices observed
at our plant by S & F inspectors include
inadequate use of personal protective
equipment such as gloves, safety glasses,
hard hats, and safety belts and improper
use of equipment such as ladders, grinders
and portable tools. Failure to follow
established operating procedures was cited
as another violation of good work practices
Haphazard material storage and poor
housekeeping were other indicators of poor
work practices.
If we develop and practice a high degree
of self-discipline in our approach to safety
and always consider these two points . . .
• Recognition of the hazards.
• Take the necessary action to elimin
ate or minimize the hazards. . . . we would
go a long way toward reaching our goal of
preventing all injuries both on and off the
job, and would minimize the need for the
other aspect of "discipline" included in
the definition — that of correction or
punishment.
This meaning of discipline has its place
too, primarily in training which can result
in improving self-discipline and ultimately
performance. Corrective contacts — some
thing we all have experienced at one time
or another, and when handled construct
ively and taken as intended, hopefully,
have helped us to improve our performance.
The need for the contact concerning safety
may result from a violation of a safety
practice due to an oversight, a short cut
in our eagerness to get the job done or
whatever, but the point is that the purpose
of the contact is to prevent an injury. All
of the steps in the disciplinary process
have that objective when they relate to
safety — an objective that none of us can
disagree with.
So you see the word discipline does
have several meanings and they are an
important part of good safety performance.
All of us at the Brevard Plant want to
make the plant a safer place to work. To
accomplish this, each of us must do our
work safely. "Performing any job satis
factorily means doing it safely" is a good
philosophy. A good way to begin is to
know and follow safety rules and regula
tions that apply to our job. This is the first
step toward developing safe work habits
and reducing the risk of injury.
In 1977, let's pledge to know the rules
and most important ... to follow them-