Background:
When Roy Richards, Sr. founded a wire
and cable manufacturing business to help bring electricity to rural Carroll
County, he had a particular customer in mind. Fresh out of the U.S. Army,
Richards sought to run power lines to his grandmother’s home. Getting the lines
there was no problem. Richards owned a construction company that erected poles
and ran wire for utilities. At the same time, funding from the U.S. Rural
Electrification Administration (REA) was bringing the promise and convenience of
electricity to much of the South.
The trouble was finding enough wire to carry current to rural areas. During a
conversation with a wire manufacturer, Richards learned that it would be three
years before the company could deliver wire to western Georgia. A company
representative asked why Richards was in such a hurry, joking that farms in the
area had operated for hundreds of years without power.
Richards’ stern reply brought his vision into clear focus.
“My grandmother is 85 years old, and she has never had the pleasure of sitting
under an electric light in her own house,” he told the manufacturer. “She’s seen
it two times she’s been to Atlanta, but she’s never had it.”
That pivotal moment marks the start of Southwire Company, which has grown into
one of the world’s leading wire and cable manufacturers. Southwire employs 4,076
individuals in North America (including Mexico and Canada).
Today, half of the copper rod for electrical wire and cable is made using
Southwire’s patented Southwire Continuous Rod (SCR) method. More than 50 years
ago, Southwire was founded to help bring electricity to rural Georgia. Today, it
supplies 135 of the nation’s top power companies, plus dozens of utility
companies abroad and is pioneering new technology to better serve all of its
wire and cable customers. Nearly a third of all homes in the United States
contain Southwire’s building wire products.
Success Impact:
Southwire Makes Many Strides towards Promoting Workplace Safety and Health
and Achieving OSHA VPP Star Status
Southwire Company is committed to protecting the environment and to ensuring the
safety and health of their employees, customers, and the public. Employees at
all levels are accountable for assuring safety and health requirements, which in
many cases, exceeds all environmental, health and safety standards and
regulations.
The company is pursuing Behavior Based Safety (BBS) implementation at all of
their manufacturing and logistics facilities by the end of 2008.
Southwire remains committed to maintaining a strong relationship with OSHA and
is committed to achieving OSHA Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) Star Status
at a majority of their facilities within the next four years. So far,
Southwire’s Forte Power Systems site in Forte, Ala. obtained VPP Star status in
June. The West Georgia Customer Service Center in Villa Rica, Ga. is scheduled
for an onsite evaluation in October. In Georgia, the Carrollton Building Wire
Plant is expecting its VPP onsite evaluation to be conducted in November.
Evaluations also are planned at Southwire’s Energy Customer Service Center in
Villa Rica in January and at the Carrollton Utility Products Plant sometime in
the first or second quarter of 2009.
Southwire Reduces Injury and Illness Rates and Selected Facilities Receive
Award of Excellence
As a result of their focus on strengthening safety initiatives, Southwire has
seen a decrease in its lost-time-accident rate from .81 in 2005 to .18 through
June 2008. Entities of Southwire facilities in GA that meet the Award of
Excellence criteria are:
Southwire Watkinsville Plant (141 employees); Southwire Copper Rod Mill (86
employees); Southwire Flatwire Group (18 employees); Southwire Operational
Support Group (150 employers) which includes the Southwire Cofer Center Group,
Southwire Machine Services Group, Southwire General Services Group; and
Southwire Energy Customer Service Center (12 employees).
Southwire Continues its Future Plans for Promoting Workplace Safety and Health
To fulfill Southwire’s commitment to excellence in safety, the company supports
the following actions:
-
Continuing to embrace their Operational Perfection at Southwire Company (OPS).
Safety is number one core principle of OPS: Avoiding injuries comes above
everything else.
-
Expecting management’s efforts to be supported and strengthened by everyone’s
active personal involvement, suggestions and ideas to keep their work place
safety and healthy.
-
Relentlessly working to eliminate foreseeable hazards and unsafe practices by
embracing BBS and VPP.
-
Recently signing a contract with a Learning Management System supplier to
provide e-learning safety courses to improve their safety and health training
and training tracking.
-
Pursuing green initiatives of reducing, reusing, and recycling by continuing
to work toward a long-term goal of achieving zero-landfill status.
-
Assisting the community in numerous ways, including supporting programs such
as 12 For Life and their Back-to-School Supply Giveaway.
-
Accessing their Employee Safety & Health program through OSHA’s VPP process
and assisting government agencies in development of best practices. They will
strive for ESH by focusing on the Leading Indicators and the listening to the
voices of their employees and community.
For more information, contact:
Tony Randolph
VP Operational Support
Southwire Company
(770) 832-4678
(678) 378-1482
Origin: Region IV, Birmingham Area Office
Entered VPP: June 2008
Industry: Manufacturing (NAICS Code 3326)
Employees: 4,000+
Employers: 1
Source and Date: Lane Davis, Executive Director, Voluntary Protection
Programs Participants' Association (August 2008)
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