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 Printing Instructions |
Koch Industries (#252) |
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Date Signed: |
January 14, 2003; Renewed March 6, 2006 |
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Date Concluded: |
March 6, 2009 |
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Contact Information: |
Directorate of Cooperative and State Programs, (202) 693-2213 |
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| Koch
Nitrogen Company operates this facility in Enid, Okla., which produces free ammonia, UAN and
urea. |
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| At its bulk-loading terminals, Koch
Carbon can load and unload ocean vessels, barges, rail cars and trucks and can also blend, dry,
screen or crush material for customers. This facility, located near Chicago on the Calumet
River, has more than 1 million tons of storage capacity and handles 4.5 million tons of cargo each
year, including various grades of coal and petroleum coke, as well as gypsum, salt, fertilizer
and other dry bulk materials. |
Partnership Overview:
In the fall of 2001, Koch Industries, Inc. approached OSHA about expanding its
relationship through a Partnership Agreement between certain Koch companies and
OSHA. The Partnership Agreement was established in January 2003 and subsequently
renewed in March 2006. This Partnership facilitates the relationship by
communicating the commitment to develop strong EHS management systems and to
strive toward workplace safety and health excellence. Koch’s partnership sites
allow OSHA to reach out to a diverse industry spectrum and to impact safety and
health in a meaningful way. The lessons learned from the partnership site
participation will be used to further impact health and safety globally at all
Koch company sites.
Partnership Goals and Objectives:
- Prevent and reduce employee injuries and illnesses
- Develop baseline data
- Use EHS Management System to develop management practices for various health
and safety hazards
- Review injury and illness information, identify causal factors, and implement
fixes
- Expand awareness of the value of EHS management systems
- Identify opportunities for management and staff to participate in site EHS
management system implementation
- Highlight successes to emphasize value of safety and health
- Recognize sites that improve their EHS management systems or develop
innovative approaches
- Enhance ergonomic program management
- Integrate ergonomic principles into existing EHS management system programs
- Establish systems that identify ergonomic risk factors, evaluate and control
ergonomic risk, and share best practices in ergonomic program management
- Improve communication and knowledge sharing between OSHA and Koch
- Enhance local relations between OSHA and Koch
- Share best practices and lessons learned
- Identify at least two case studies that advance the knowledge of the
practical implementation and impact of EHS management systems
- Attend and network at conferences
- Increase VPP participation
- Identify potential VPP sites
- Seek mentors for facilitation of VPP application
- Use tools such as OSHA Challenge to track sites’ progresses to VPP
participation
- Increase participation in SGE program
- Enhance contractor safety
- Share and encourage use of information about best practices in EHS management
systems (i.e., OSHA e-tools or small business publications) with Koch company
contractors
- Develop site training for contractors as appropriate
Partnership Results:
In 2007, the partnership completed its fifth successful year. First, the
partnership made strides towards its main goal, the prevention and reduction of
employee injuries and illnesses. Its sites continued to outperform their
respective industry average injury and illness rates. Of the 8 sites in the
partnership, there was a 10% decrease in the overall one-year Total Case
Incident Rate (TCIR), from 2.1 in 2006 to 1.9; the Days Away, Restricted, and/or
Transferred Case Incident Rates (DART) decreased 27% to 0.8 from 2006’s 1.1.
Also, The partnership sites continued to outperform their industry counterparts’
averages based on Total Case Incident Rates (TCIR) and Days Away, Restricted,
and/or Transferred Case Incident Rates (DART).
An analysis of the facilities’ rates and their respective BLS industry averages
shows the partnerships’ TCIR and DART, both for 2007 and its three-year averages
(2005-2007), outperforming their respective industry counterparts.
- 2007 TCIR: In 2007, the partnership achieved a TCIR average of 1.9
- 10% below the preceding year’s
- 37% below the baseline of 3.0
- 58% below their industry counterparts on the average
- 2007 DART: In 2007, the partnership achieved a DART rate of 0.8
- 27% below the preceding year’s
- 50% below the baseline rate of 1.6
- 78% below their industry counterparts on the average
- 2005-2007 TCIR: For the 3-year average, the partnership achieved a TCIR rate
of 2.4
- 20% below the baseline rate of 3.0
- 46% below their industry counterparts on the average
- 2005-2007 DART: For the 3-year average, the partnership achieved a DART rate
of 1.2
- 25% below the baseline rate of 1.6
- 66% below their industry counterparts on the average
Other notable events and achievements of the Koch
Industries National Partnership include:
- Publication of the Field Ergonomic Guide
- OSHA/Koch collaboration addresses partnership goal of reducing
ergonomic-based injuries which comprise a majority of the injuries
partnership-wide
- Partnership-wide distribution launched along with training
- Contractor Safety Training
- Developed by a team of OSHA and Koch Representatives
- VPP Activity
- Koch Carbon facility in Corpus Christi, Texas achieved VPP Star Status
- Koch Aviation in Wichita, Kansas achieved VPP Star Status
- C. Reiss Coal Company achieved VPP Star Status in April 2007 after achieving
VPP Merit Status in 2005
- Three facilities are actively pursuing VPP
- Mentored another corporate aviation service which ultimately received VPP
Star recognition
Publication of Field Ergonomic Guide
A review of the injury and illness trends shows that the majority of injuries
and illnesses were associated with ergonomics and walking/working surfaces. To
address this, one of the partnership’s objectives in achieving the partnership
goal of reducing ergonomic injuries was to publish and implement a field
ergonomic guide. The ergonomic task force, formed by the PMT in late 2004, met
this goal by developing and publishing the guide. Training was provided to the
plants safety teams who then began using the guide to help identify ergonomic
risk factors.
The ergonomic field guide was shared and implemented at all partnership sites in
2006 and 2007 through the use of training sessions. The publication of the guide
shows the goal of improved communication and knowledge sharing between OSHA and
Koch being met.
To address specific ergonomic hazards, several facilities in the partnership
have taken proactive steps. For example, one facility decided to do the
following: mandate that all supervisors receive training in ergonomic hazards
recognition; require the use of pre-job hazard analyses using a decision matrix
to recognize hazards; and purchased specific items to assist employees. Another
site had all of its employees receive ergonomic training, added an ergonomic
section to each step of its Job Safety Analyses, included contractors in
ergonomic awareness trainings which included the ergonomic field guide, and made
several modifications to equipment to reduce vibrations.
Contractor Safety
One partnership objective focused on enhancing contractor safety. To address
this, This involved providing training to both partnership and non-partnership
site representatives in best practices in contractor safety. The committee
successfully conducted a training session in March 2005 that involved subject
matter experts in contractor safety from OSHA, Koch, and Monsanto. Training was
conducted using Video Teleconferencing technology at Koch’s Washington D.C. and
Wichita offices. The event was well received by all attendees. This effort
demonstrates a spirit of cooperation not only between Koch and between OSHA but
between other industry safety leaders as well.
Eventually, several partnership sites established teams to specifically focus on
making improvements in their contractor programs at their sites. The contractor
safety training session shows improved communication and knowledge sharing
between OSHA and Koch as well as the increased awareness of the value of EHS
management systems, both of which are two of the partnership’s goals. At this
time, a list of active contractors is vetted and approved based on a grading
system that includes performance criteria such as EMR, incident rates, lost time
rates and environmental performance. Also, several sites are currently working
with consultants to incorporate into their qualifying services a matrix of
prescribed training, developed internally by Koch Industries, for which training
records are required. Revision of the site hazard reporting and tracking
procedure will be accompanied by a parallel review of contractor hazard tracking
and abatement verification.
VPP Activity
VPP participation remained a major objective of the Partnership. Three
partnership sites achieved VPP recognition and several sites were actively
working toward VPP participation, with assistance from the PMT. Addressing the
goal, the partnership achieved the following:
- Koch Carbon’s Petroleum Coke facility in Corpus Christi, TX achieved VPP STAR
status.
- C. Reiss coal terminal in Green Bay, WI submitted their application and had
their on-site assessment
- Koch Nitrogen’s facility in Enid, OK conducted their first "VPP gap
assessment" and started working with a Region VI OSHA compliance assistance
specialist
According to Koch Industries, this partnership "has set the bar for other Koch
affiliates to pursue VPP... Overall the Safety and Health awareness within [the
sites] in the partnership has increased which will lead to an increased number
of applications into VPP from selected sites in 2009."
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