Company Name: Textron Inc.
City: Providence, RI
Number of Employees: 42,000

Nomination Essay:

Textron Inc. is a multi-industry company featuring such brand names as Bell Helicopter, Cessna Aircraft, EZ-GO, Greenlee and Jacobsen. Textron operates in 28 different countries with an employee population of approximately 42,000. In 2008, Occupational Hazards magazine named Textron as one of America's safest companies.

The company is guided by its EHS Vision:

We are committed to the health and safety of our employees, contractors, and communities. We will actively champion environmentally sound practices and safe behaviors. We will continuously improve our processes, require individual accountability and demonstrate leadership to achieve zero injuries and illnesses, eliminate adverse environmental impacts, and contribute positively to the communities in which we operate.

Textron Operating Principles

• No job or activity is worth risking injury
• All injuries & illnesses & environmental incidents are preventable
• Working safely & in an environmentally responsible manner is a condition of employment
• Each of us is responsible for the safe behavior of ourselves & others
• EHS is led by senior management, implemented by line management, with each level accountable to the one above and responsible for the one below
• We will design & integrate EH&S into our facilities & into our management processes
• All employees will be provided the necessary knowledge, skills & abilities to work safely
• Strong Environmental, Healthy & Safety performance is good business

Two key drivers of the process will serve as the basis for this nomination:
1) "Safety Starts With Me" - a video campaign to raise awareness and foster personal accountability for safety.
2) Textron's EHS Management System

Safety Starts With Me Video

Textron's EHS Council, made up of senior EHSM representatives from each business unit, and tasked the Director of EHS Training for the corporation to produce a video to present a personal message from CEO Lewis Campbell and to promote two key points; personal accountability for safety and taking charge/care of their safety ZONE - the immediate area in which they work.

The project started with a message from the CEO in which he presented his views and personal commitment to safety. He challenged each Textron employee to take personal accountability for their safety and the safety of fellow Textron employees. The message to leaders and supervision was that safety was their responsibility. He personally accepted responsibility for safety across Textron and set forth expectations that all leaders do the same. His message ended with "I'm Lewis Campbell and safety starts with me!"

A road trip followed the CEO shoot. Numerous Textron facilities were visited and employee interviews conducted. The project started out with scripted questions. However these questions were soon set aside due to the powerful and compelling messages presented by the employees in their own words. One example was that of Jeff Bohannon at Textron's Greenlee Genoa facility. The video crew found him on his hands and knees cleaning up an oil spill. He was passing by, saw the spill and immediately took action. He did not work in the area, but in his words "I saw the spill and cleaned it up. I can't have anybody getting hurt here." a prime example of personal accountability for safety. As a side note, this facility has just completed over 1 million hours (two and on-half years) work without a lost time injury. His was just one of many such stories gathered in almost twelve hours of video tape.

The tough job that followed was editing these messages into a video of no more than eight to ten minutes (guidelines set by the EHS Council for the project). The final product was just over eight minutes long featuring numerous Textron employees giving their views on safety and the reasons why and how they take personal accountability for safety. Numerous examples of how they controlled safety within their work ZONE were shown. This was followed by the CEO message. The video featured employees making their own personal statement "Safety Starts With Me". It concluded with Lewis Campbell's own commitment "Safety Starts With Me" and a final fade with the question - "What will you do?"

The video was translated into nine different languages for distribution. A presentation package was prepared that included a DVD of the video, a Leaders Guide to accompany the video allowing facilitators/supervisors/leaders to discuss each theme within the video and how it might apply to their own facility or workplace, a CD with PowerPoint presentations on personal accountability and the safety ZONE concept, again including speaker notes and leaders guide. Over 1,500 of these packets were distributed to Textron facilities around the world. The video was also broadcast on Textron's internal video delivery system. This method resulted in over 26,000 downloads across Textron.

This video and its message have helped Textron reach another milestone on its journey to premier performance and zero incidents.

EHS Management System

For a number of years Textron has been using an EHS Management System (EHSMS) consisting of 14 elements and modeled after a number of world class performing organizations. Utilizing a scoring system of 1 to 5, (with 5 being superior performance), each of the 14 elements was scored and an overall average score obtained. A score of 1 indicates a facility or unit that is performing at minimal levels and needing attention. A score of 5 indicates a robust system that is operating at levels comparable to ISO, OSHAS or VPP standards.

Self evaluations and audits against these elements produced improving performance but not to the levels desired by the EHS Council. After discussion with Textron senior management, Lewis Campbell, CEO, provided the spark needed by putting a continual improvement goal based on the EHSMS in his own personal goals. He then flowed this goal down to his direct reports and the heads of each operating/business unit. Improvement targets were set and these targets entered into the goal deployment and key performance indicator systems. Measurement against these targets became a part of each performance review and assessment session across the enterprise. Incremental target improvements of between 1 point and 0.5 point per year were set depending upon baseline and current EHSMS status. True testimony to the management theorem - "What gets measured, gets done."

Utilization of the EHSMS as a leading metric over the past few years has produced an approximate 75% reduction in recordable cases and significant reduction in compensation costs. Textron's world-wide EHSMS score for 2008 was 4.7 indicating a continuing but flattening trend.

As such the EHS Council put together a team to look into the future. What happens when we reach 5? Do we go to 6? Do we re-calibrate and make 5 harder to achieve? Do we toss the current system and start anew?

After benchmarking, research and brainstorming for almost a year, the team reported back to the Council with recommendations for a new evolution of the EHSMS. This evolution centers around six dimensions rather than fourteen elements - seemed to make sense in a LEAN operating environment. However, within these dimensions are many of the same tactical functionalities of the old fourteen element system. Additional focus areas of product design and employee health and wellness were added. An overarching dimension of results was also added; are all the things we are doing in our system producing the desired results. If not, then we are doing the wrong things. The new EHSMS was designed to integrate into a corporate effort in which business processes are assessed in preparation for petitioning for the SHINGO prize for operational process excellence. This Textron Business Systems Assessment (TBSA) provided a model upon which a number of the concepts were developed and built. Such integration enabled development of a robust evaluation and scoring tool that is very similar to that used in the TBSA.

The team developed a visual concept of a house to enable better understanding of the next EHSMS evolution. The graphic depicts the foundation (Cultural Enablers) on which the rest of the structure is built. Within the framework of the house are the other 4 dimensions (EHS Operating Process, Continual Improvement, Product Design and Health and Wellness). A door depicts those who live, work or may visit the house (from employees, to stakeholders, to customers) Finally; the roof depicts the final dimension (Results).

Currently the revised EHSMS is being introduced and training is being conducted across Textron to enable operations/facilities/business units to baseline, identify gaps and then set plans in place for improvement.

Across Textron, around the world this EHS systematic approach coupled with each employee believing and living "Safety Starts With Me" will continue to produce superior performance. Our ultimate goal of zero incidents is within sight.

We respectfully submit our story for consideration as the SAXCIE Henshaw Award for Corporate Leadership in Safety.