The Importance of Continuous Improvement and Organisational Culture

Shaun: Welcome to this edition of the British Safety Council podcast, Health and Safety Uncut. Today I'm joined by Kirsty Sommerby. Kirsty is the Health, Safety and Wellbeing Director for Unipart, a supply chain performance improvement partner. Today we're going to be discussing the importance of continuous improvement and organizational culture change. 

Welcome, Kirsty.  

Kirsty: Thank you.  

Shaun: Kirsty, you bring an enormous amount of experience, 26 years' experience in the field of health safety and you have been an A key part of the the safety, health and well-being journey in in Unipart. 

And I've made some really special and unique contributions to that organization. Why is it? Why is health safety and wellbeing so important to Unipart and to you personally? There is nothing more important than health and safety. 

Ensuring that our people can go home at the end of every day safe, healthy and, you know, in the same condition to which they arrived is the most important thing that any of us can do and ensure that our organisations do it. It's also a moral responsibility for every organization to ensure that they have the right procedures in place to ensure that safety and wellbeing of everyone at work. 

Shaun: OK, So Unipart designs make moves improved components right across supply chains, which is clearly a massive ever changing undertaking. How do you and the teams there, how do you go about assessing, maintaining and achieving health and well-being standards across that organization when you've got so many key teams, stakeholders, shift patterns, etcetera? 

How do you how do you make sure everybody gets that same level of involvement?  

Kirsty: So Unipart you need because you've got rail, you've got manufacturing, you've got logistics, you've got all of these different areas with different requirements and different processes. 

As a health and safety practitioner, it's really exciting because it means that you're working across a number of different areas that you might not in your working professional life actually have an opportunity to engage with. What we do is we ensure that we have a really clear legal register, and that legal register then links across every area of the organization to ensure that we're meeting our requirements. 

And then we have the next layer down where we're looking at the specific policies and procedures. The additional challenge to that is we're an international organization. So it's also about trying to make sure that the policies, procedures, practices that you put in place can actually be met across the the world globally as well as across all of our different areas from manufacturing to shipping products out the door. 

When we're talking about logistics to our offices and to people who are remote working. So it is, it is challenging, but it is about making sure that we've got standardized processes, but we're adaptable and flexible enough to be able to ensure that they can work in the various different environments. 

Shaun: And so those standards are they standardized right across your operation regardless of the country that you work in or the other Unipart kind of business unit that you're working in?  

Kirsty: I'd like to say for health and safety that they were, but this is actually a piece of work that we're really doing this this year and next year. 

We've got a 2030 plan that we're calling our zero harm strategy and that is about getting it standardized across the whole organization everywhere. As it stands at the moment, we do have a level of standardization, but that standardization comes because of the Unipart way and the way that we do our business. 

So the Unipart way are the business tools that we put in place and our culture to be able to deliver. So it gives us a standardization across all areas, but we also have territory experts out in the various countries to make sure that we're meeting the specific legislation. 

So now it's just linking how we really make sure that what we're delivering in the UK is what we're delivering globally.  

Shaun: And so where do you, where do you set the standard from? Do you set the standard from the UK? Do you set the standard from the US, for example? What, what, who, who defines and sets the standard for those local business units to to deploy? 

Kirsty: So we are a UK business, that's where we're registered. The UK with the HSC standards have very high standards globally recognised. So we set the standards to there, but we do look specifically in our bigger territories, at some of the requirements. 

So we meet all the requirements of OSHA out in of North America and we meet all the Australian standards we're operating in Australia.  

Shaun: And so how, how prescriptive are you then? I mean, for people out there that might be branching into global businesses, do you, is it do you set a series of non-negotiables that you just will not depart from or do you give them a framework to deploy locally or a a hybrid? What do you do?  

Kirsty: It's more about the framework. So we have a health, safety and well-being handbook where all of our standards are written. We have this safe sustainability, health and well-being plan which gives a framework to every element that we want people to deliver. 

So, it starts with do you have a policy? Have you set the policy? Have you displayed it? Do people know it to? Have you got manual handling training? So whether you required it in your territory or not, we ask that as part of our management system, manual handling is a given. 

Shaun: So, it might not necessarily be a be defined in a particular territory as a priority, but you define it centrally to raise a bar. Is that is that I'm hearing that right?  

Kirsty: Yes, yes. So we're looking for best practice standards as we've always been chasing the best standard to be 5 star to be, you know, exceed that, that five star. 

And to be fair, that's to some extent why we started on the journey with British Safety Council back in 2011, where we were looking to say we didn't want to, at that time accredit ourselves to ISO 18,001, because we didn't see it as a pinnacle of Excellence. It wasn't, it wasn't an ISO standard that's at that point it was just OSAS. So we were looking to a credit to something to audit externally to be able to demonstrate thus criteria and we came back to British Safety Council having been heavily involved back in the end of the 90s. 

We came back to it to look at see how can we have best standards and we used it as a framework to develop our continuous improvement in health & safety over the many years. And then when we came to the Shield being introduced, we were looking to see how do we embed wellbeing within our management system. 

And by going through the process of the audit, we got three stars. The first year we did it, then the second year we achieved the treble. So we got our Shield of Honor, which we were absolutely thrilled to be the first company to do that.  

Shaun: So just to be clear that people maybe are not familiar, you're talking about the Shield of Honour, the British Safety Council award. 

So you have the Sword of Honor for safety, the Globe for environment and the Shield. And you're the first organization to achieve all three, the sword, the globe and the shield in in recognition of the work that you've done to be a five star organization across all three of those disciplines. 

Kirsty: That's right. So yes, we were absolutely thrilled to be the first organiser to do that. We were also one of the very first to get the double. So when they introduced the environmental auditing and the the Globe of Honour, we were one of the very first organisations to get the globe as well, showing that we have equal importance to health, safety and wellbeing to our sustainability and environmental agendas. 

Shaun: So being the first organization to get the treble, so to speak, that recognition across the Sword, the the Globe and the Shield. When that message landed internally, how did your key stakeholders, your board, your chief exec, how did they respond? What? What sort of reception did it get? 

Kirsty: Our chief executive at the time was John Neil and he was absolutely delighted. It's something that he'd been passionate about for many, many, many years. When I joined UniPart 25 years ago, he had the health and well-being committee. 

So to then, you know, get start to get awards for it and for something that he'd been leading over a number of years that that was really thrilling. I think the board were really proud. And you know, I think we use it as an organization as a slight differentiator to show that we are, you know, something a little bit different from some of our other third-party logistics competitors. 

Shaun: I've got to say I; I've been fortunate enough. I came out to meet you and the team when you had achieved the recognition and it comes out again talking to you now. You've got a lot of humility. You are very, very humble in it and I think the achievement is phenomenal. 

I think the fact that you've got all three and I think the way that you use it internally to further drive culture change, continuous improvement and engagement is exactly what the British Safety Council awards are designed to do. 

They are, it's great. You know, they look great on a, on an awards trophy, an award shelf. They look great on the wall. But you, you as an organization use them for more than that. You use them as a, a platform to further drive continuous improvement and excellence. 

And I think that that to me is what makes them really special because you are, you're getting the recognition and you're using them as a, as a driver for change. I think it's fantastic. What, what next? Then what, what are you going to go after next? 

What's the next on your, you personally and your organization's kind of priorities? What are you going after you think? So you've got 20-30 plan, but what's on your in your horizon at the minute?  

Kirsty: So our twenty data plan is really exciting. So we have got a brand new zero harm branding. 

Now that might sound a bit sort of back in the 1980s, but actually our zero harm is about bringing health, safety and well-being under one umbrella. So it's zero harm physically, it's zero harm mentally. It's about looking at neurodiversity, it's about looking at holistic health and it's about taking our management model to the next level. 

We've got to a point where we have fantastic lost time incident rates, you know, very, very low, but we've got to a point where we've plateaued. We're not reducing them further. So we're low against anything else. But I was really disappointed to to read the report from a bid that came back to say, well, you're not demonstrating can use improvement because you're LTI rate hasn't come down. 

Well, our LTI rate is, is, has been, you know, at a level 0.44 and the last six months and, you know, there is a feeling that we've got to do something differently if we're going to bring it down even further. 

So how do we do that differently? Our chief executive, Darren Lee is really keen on zero harm. But when we're talking about zero harm, we're not talking about it as a target. We're talking about it as a way of viewing, right. How do we look at our risks differently? 

How do we engage with technology, with AI to really look at the data to really understand what those risks are? How do we engage holistically and ensure that our people are as well as they can be. Looking not only at, you know, how we reduce our COSHH risks and our other risks, but how we make the environment more inducive to good health. 

And we support, you know, areas such as neurodiversity and inclusion and, and just ensure that we are providing the working environment which allows our people to thrive. So that's what zero harm is about for us. 

And it's a really exciting time where I'm hoping that we'll, you know, have some investment in some things like automation and technology, which is going to be really exciting to look at how we can reduce that risk, risk further. And I'm hoping that in our plan, we, we will get to that target zero. 

But that's not the reason we're doing it. The reason we're doing it is to make ourselves a safer, healthier workplace and one where we can, you know, continue to improve our productivity because lets face it, if you're not having the instance and if you people are well and if you people are engaged, then they are going to be more productive. 

Shaun: So, there's a couple of couple of spin off questions there for you, for you. One of them is you mentioned neurodiversity and inclusion there a couple of times. So do you / Unipart see that DNI inclusion agenda aligned or a subset of well-being? 

Is that, is that how you view it? Is it or is it just part of good business all around that you that you look at diversity, talent, inclusion etcetera?  

Kirsty: It's part of good business, it's, it's part of our you know, HR agenda I would suggest. 

But equally we are trying to very much move our well-being into you know, it's the way that we operate. It's, it's the way that we do, you know, everything. And so while we haven't.. Well-being, will, you know, still go over all of those areas of HR, occupational health, operations. 

We got well-being very much within our, our branding within the health and safety model. We are training up our health and safety professionals to really understand what well-being is all about and without identifying the differences for individuals, you're not going to reckon you're not going to be able to deliver on a well-being agenda. 

Shaun: OK. And you the other question is you mentioned you've seen a decrease in in your lost time injuries you're at a low rate of 0.4. How... people out there that probably don't appreciate how difficult it is when you get into the small numbers to keep continuously improving, what would you say to those people? 

Kirsty: I would say it's all about employee engagements. So I think strong committees, engaged employees who believe that they have a voice in the workplace is really essential if you're going to improve and, and, and reduce that, you need a level of accountability where health and safety isn't being done to people that they're engaged with it. 

So if they see something that is a hazard, they feel empowered to raise it and address it and feel that they can. We use continuous improvements and train all of our colleagues in continuous improvement activities, again to support that empowerment and that engagement that we can all make a difference. 

We are on a journey to really trying to get to interdependency. We're not there at the moment, but every, you know, every day, every training is, is about getting a little bit closer, closer to it and a little bit more engaged.  

Shaun: So, so without wanting to put words in your mouth, I think what you were saying was that you, you can kind of get some level of return and improvement from policy standards, procedures and engineering controls. 

And as you get further down the, the, the curve, as it were, you then, you know, it becomes more difficult to get those big improvements. And that's when you need to be looking at the people agenda. So things like how you engage people, how you communicate, what collateral you use communications, like I said I don't want to put words in your mouth, But is that is that your experience?  

Kirsty: Absolutely. The people know the best way to do the job. They know their jobs inside and out, you know, and equally they know the shortcuts that they can take. So, it's about understanding why they would feel the need to do that. 

It's about understanding what the what those shortcuts are. And equally it's about the leadership and the expectations that you're setting for those people. So, I do believe that if you engage with the colleagues, they will engage the best way to do the process. 

Shaun: And so would consequently help you kind of get those improvements that you're looking for?  

Kirsty: Absolutely. You know, make sure that your procedures are written in the right way because if they actually can't achieve it, then they're going to find a different way of doing it. The people that do the job of the people who are best placed to know how to do it safely, they know the shortcuts and they know the difficulties. 

I think it's about the collaboration which leadership give to them. So if you say I want the job done safely by Friday, they'll do it as safely as they can. That's what Doctor Tim Marsh says. But if you say I want the job done, safely and by Friday you've got 2 requirements there haven't you? 

And the safety is more important than the the Friday deadline. And then he says, you know, go and have a have a cup of coke and a Mars bar and chat it through if you don't think that's achievable. So again, it is about that engagement of the people to actually say this is what I want to achieve, this is how I want to do it. 

How do we get this product out of the door safely? Equally, the other thing that we do in Unipart is we business partner our health and safety professionals. So, I business partner with the managing directors and the chief executive and we've recently appointed a chief sustainability officer who is looking after all of our supporting functions, facilities security, health, safety and well-being, sustainability, operational excellence. 

And that's really powerful in itself in that we as professionals understand through our business partnering, we understand the business. So, we understand the issues, we understand the pressures, we work with the leadership, we have engaged conversations. 

We are the business partners of choice. So that when we're talking about the best way to do something, there is that open dialogue.  

Shaun: Good/ You, you mentioned earlier on, didn't you about continuous improvement in in the operation? So, do you use, do you use kind of recognized tools that kind of yeah, 6 Sigma or other lean methodologies, 5S what or, or is it your own Unipart system? 

Kirsty: No, the system's all linked to those, so 6 Sigma. To look at data, we use 5S. I think actually one of the things which is really important is when we do Accident Investigation at every level of the organization, we start with Fishbone. 

How do you identify what the potential issues were with this? Trying to encourage people to keep an open mind when they're looking at the cause of the incident. And then we, you know, use other tools. So, in manufacturing we use 8D’s, we'll use 5Y’s in the other operations to actually, you know, establish what that really causes. 

And then when we identify what the really causes, then we're looking for what the improvement is. So, we will then use other tools to engage with the colleagues to identify what the solution was.  

Shaun: And you pull on different levels in the organization or is it a, is it a shop floor included initiative as well as kind of executive teams? 

Kirsty: Absolutely. You know, the best improvement opportunities we have are when we engage with the the shop floor. Again, going back to the fact that they understand the process is probably better than anybody else. But equally, you know, our problem solving is designed to be done at every level of the organization, is designed to engage with all of the people at different levels because they bring to that different levels of their expertise, different experience, different ideas. 

Shaun: OK. Can I and can I bring us back in that same vein around continuous improvement? Can I bring us back to the Sword Globe and Shield and how you've used that to drive continuous improvement, if you've used that to drive continuous improvement?  

Kirsty: So, we absolutely have because one of the nice things about all of those products is when you can have your auditor, you have your auditor there for several days. 

And you know, there is an openness in the discussions which you don't get with other external audits or the ISO standards where you know, the auditor will discuss and you know, we'll share things which they've seen in other organizations or other ideas. 

And the reports in themselves sort of help you to, to, to think about what you might do as, as a next step or as a next, you know, continuum. So, we always look at those reports to actually start to give our thinking of what our next step for continuous improvement is. 

Shaun: Then with regards to the the Shield of Honor, which is the wellbeing award, how have you used that? You know that's the most recent award that you got that that help you complete the treble. How have you used that to further promote and drive your well-being agenda? 

Kirsty: The order has really helped us because it was a framework for the additional standard for ISO 45003. So, we are going for that standard on our Cowley site this year. What it did was gave, it gave us framework and it gave us the steps to be able to look at our wellbeing strategy, to incorporate it and sit it next to our health and safety strategy and our ISO standard and actually to look at the building blocks that we want to implement in order to deliver wellbeing as a as a strategy within the management system. 

Shaun: Very good. OK, as I, as I bring this conversation to a close and I, I always like to ask our guests what is their one key take away? So, if you had one, you know, an opportunity now to kind of reach out to the listeners and for them to do one thing differently from tomorrow. 

What would your advice and steer be to them?  

Kirsty: I've talked about the importance of the shop floor and the staff that are doing the job. And so, I think really listening to what they have to say, taking their feedback, looking at them to provide some of the solutions and just really engage with them because they're a really powerful resource that can support you with that continuous improvement. 

And by taking them on that journey, you get operational excellence, you get employee engagement, and you know they get the satisfaction that their voice is being heard.  

Shaun: I totally agree. Well, congratulations to you and the team at Unipart on your sword Globe shield as individual elements and as securing the treble altogether. 

I think it's an amazing achievement. And I I'm delighted to hear that that you are using them to drive forward continuous improvement and culture change. And I wish you every, every success in the future that so thank you, Kirsty. And I look forward to us talking again.  

Kirsty: Thank you very much, it's been a pleasure. 

 

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