David Hudson, EHS Coordinator at Adient discusses the benefits of being a member of the NEAA’s Safety Group

Creating a culture fully committed to health and safety is a strategic goal for the vast majority of NEAA members.

As such, the safety group was created in 2017. It is steered by project manager at the NEAA, Stuart McGivern and Vince Rogan at Marelli with other participating members including Vantec, Komatsu, Faltec Europe, Marelli GT Group, ElringKlinger and Envision.

One such member is David Hudson, EHS coordinator at automotive seat manufacturer, Adient.

“Joining Adient as its EHS coordinator in February, I brought experience in building a health and safety culture in my previous roles. However, I took up my post in the middle of a pandemic and being offered access to the NEAA’s safety group has been a rewarding, valuable and reassuring experience during a time of immense turbulence and uncertainty for the supply chain.

“Being a member, allows us to share best practice and it is interesting to hear about the processes in place across other companies. A talk was recently held at Vantec, providing us all with interesting takeaways and areas for discussion, particularly when it came to forklift trucks and the systems and compliance in place when unloading materials.

“From an Adient perspective, health and safety and promoting a positive workplace culture is a top priority. Within my role, I oversee all of our procedures ensuring that communication and best practice flows throughout the organisation.

“My job is always interesting and varies by the day, from overseeing metrics conducted on a monthly basis so that we are recording incident rates, ensuring HSC representatives, operations and maintenance teams are all performing and being both proactive and reactive when it comes to potential hazards.

“Health and safety reviews take place regularly and we work very hard to ensure all systems are compliant and we have successfully passed all ISO accreditations. Internal and external audits take place on a regular basis and all teams meet frequently to ensure action plans are met.

“For anyone entering the site, masks must be worn and safety tours and monthly inspections take place.

“Digitalisation will play a big part moving forward, we will be assessing digital tools and looking at how they can measure the procedures we put in place. This is something we are keen to explore and share with the safety group at the NEAA.

“All companies in the group are exemplars when it comes to health and safety and by working together and sharing ideas, we can support and further develop each other.”

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