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OVER 365 DAYS INCIDENT FREE
GOJO Distribution Center, Lippman Campus

By Kim Bogucki, Shipping

When one thinks of dangerous jobs, many people often immediately think of firefighters or police
officers. We often don’t think about the dangers in the warehouse environment. The GOJO Warehouse
team members are a highly mobile workgroup that utilizes heavy equipment to move the pallets filled
with GOJO products around the warehouse to supply the Manufacturing Center or to ship to GOJO
customers. Regardless of the pressure that accompanies dangerous work atmospheres, we are proud
to report that the GOJO Distribution Center, Lippman Campus (DC) has accomplished another amazing
feat as their last OSHA recordable was on May 9, 2017!
For the second time in three years, the DC has operated for an entire year without an OSHA
recordable safety incident. The current record was set in 2016, and includes an unbelievable 509
days without an OSHA recordable (July 11, 2015 – December 1, 2016).
How are the DC leaders driving them to safety? I sat down with Warehouse Manager Manny Garcia
and Assistant Warehouse Manager Raymond Flauto at the GOJO Distribution Center, Lippman
Campus to discuss their approach to safety.
What’s driving safety at the GOJO Distribution Center, Lippman Campus?
Before the start of each shift, there is a kick-off meeting to discuss a variety of topics including workload,
enterprise initiatives, and safety. The goal of the kick-off meeting is to inform and engage GOJO team
members in and about projects, processes, and events going on across the Enterprise. This is a time to
share information about safety incidents and discuss, “How might we…?” make our work environment
safer and continuously improve the way we do things. In addition to routine safety discussions, the DC
emphasizes the importance of training. As a learning organization, training is vital to ensuring the
continued safety of each GOJO team member. Raymond Flauto, Assistant Warehouse Manager, said,

I finish up every kickoff meeting with an engaging safety topic, so it’s the freshest thing
on everyone’s mind as they begin their work day. Different safety topics are discussed to
engage team members both verbally and visually, and we consistently train people about
employing a safety mindset that extends beyond work hours and into their personal lives.
We have a pretty robust training program in the DC that involves certification on the
power industrial trucks (PIT), where a new team member receives training about safe
equipment operation specific to the PIT that they are being certified on. In addition, the
trainee must successfully pass a written test and finally demonstrate the ability to safely
operate the equipment prior to completion of the training module.
When a team member experiences an accident, whether it is a near miss, property damage, or an
OSHA recordable incident, a post incident safety review meeting takes place with the team member, the
safety team, HR, and the leadership team. The post incident safety review is a valuable tool for
everyone. First, it engages the person that was involved in the accident and allows them to explain what
happened, assesses the root cause of the incident and reminds them that accidents and unsafe acts not
only affect them, but everyone around them. Secondly, these meetings help supervisors understand
measures that need to be taken to implement a process improvement or a contingency plan to prevent
the same or similar accidents happening in the future. These reviews have proven positive and will
continue to be held when an accident occurs to help drive the positive safety trends in the DC.
Warehouse Manager, Manny Garcia, said the post incident review is an important component to
ensuring the safety of GOJO team members, and ensuring that we are learning from any incidents.
The element that I appreciate about the Post Incident Safety Review meetings is the
display of personal accountability by those involved in the incident. Once the team
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