The Engineered Wood Association announced the winners of its 2018 Safety and Health Awards. The program aims to recognize safety and operational excellence in the structural panel and engineered timber industries.

Resolute-LP Engineered Wood and LP won the safest company awards in their respective categories, and Resolute-LP Engineered Wood and Roseburg Forest Products Company topped the competition for innovation awards.

In 2018, the average weighted accident rate (WIR) of the structural panel and engineered timber industry was 6.99, a significant decrease from 8.43 in 2017. The total accident rate (TIR) ​​in 2018 was 1.41, which was also an improvement from 2017's 1.77. WIR is calculated using the number and severity of recordable events.

The Equipment-Based Safety Innovation Award was awarded to Resolute-LP Engineered Wood of La Roche, Quebec, for its sheet metal storage system. The goal is to create a system that allows workers to manipulate sheet metal with minimal manual lifting and handling. The new system stores metal vertically instead of stacking it horizontally, eliminating the risk of falling and hand crushing. Highly maneuverable electric trolleys and cranes retrieve materials and transport them to the destination without blocking the pedestrian area. The project reduced the number of entrainment hazards, increased productivity, and minimized the safety risks of activities.

Jeff Wagner's process-based innovation winner was Roseburg Forest Products Company in Coquille, Oregon, because of its safe drive processes. Based on some unsuccessful accidents between truck drivers and mobile equipment operators, Roseburg’s team developed a safe driver process. It has constructed small buildings in each of the three loading and unloading locations of the property. These structures are equipped with heating and air-conditioning to keep the driver comfortable while waiting. Each is equipped with a weight-sensitive cushion that is connected to a flashlight to let the forklift drivers involved in the loading process know that the truck driver is not in their work area. The safe driver's shed reduces near misses between truck drivers and forklift operators, and improves communication and safety awareness.

The APA award program began in 1982 to recognize the management and employees of companies and factories with the lowest weighted accident rate (WIR), which is based on the number of recordable incidents reported by the factory’s annual OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) And the severity of the calculated report. Since 2008 is the first year of using WIR, awards and reports from 2009 to 2016 continue to show the total incident rate (TIR) ​​used in previous years.

78 APA member structural wood panel and engineered wood product facilities in the United States, Canada and abroad participated in the 2018 plan. Twenty factories representing six APA member companies won awards in various competition categories. Some factories have won many awards.

In addition to the safest company and innovation awards, other competition categories include safety improvement, annual safety and health honor roll, 3-year safety award, and no accident honor society. The annual honor roll, three-year average, and safety improvement category are divided into three parts according to the types of products produced by the factory.

Although the program awards are limited to APA members, data will be collected from member and non-member factories to provide a broad-based industry performance benchmark. A total of 78 factories reported 2018 data.

At the APA Annual Meeting in Tucson, Arizona in November, award-winning facilities and companies will be honored at the Chairman's Dinner and celebrated for their safety achievements. APA senior managers will also award medals to the winning factories.

The 2018 Safety and Health Award program is the 11th year of the program. The program is led by the APA Safety and Health Advisory Committee, which is composed of security professionals from several APA member companies. Under the guidance of the committee, three main goals have been established: to make the APA program the industry’s premier safety award program, to encourage the sharing of best practices as a means to improve the industry’s safety culture and programs, and most importantly, to improve the overall industry Horizontal safety performance.

APA is proud of the industry’s progress in developing and implementing systems and processes that will continue to reduce accidents and improve worker safety. For more information about the APA Safety and Health Award program, please visit the association's website www.apawood.org.

Full list of winners:

Equipment-based innovation winner Resolute-LP Engineered Wood, LaRouche, Quebec

Jeff Wagner Winner of Process-Based Innovation Roseburg Forest Products, Coquille, Oregon

Three or less factories Resolute-LP engineered wood

Four or more Mills LP

First Place-RoyOMartin Chopin, Louisiana

Second Place-Boise Cascade Company Chester, South Carolina

1st Place-LP Ponta Grossa, Brazil

Second place – LP Panguipulli, Chile

Part III (glulam, type I joists, LVL and SCL)

1st Place-LP Wilmington, North Carolina

Second Place-Boise Cascade Company Roxboro, North Carolina

Part I (Plywood) Boise Cascade Company-Chester, South Carolina

Division II (OSB) LP – Panguipulli, Chile

Division III (Glulam, I-Joist, LVL and SCL) LP-Golden, British Columbia

Division I (Plywood) Hood Industries, Inc.-Wiggins, Mississippi

Division II (OSB) LP Brazil-Punta Grossa, Brazil

Division III (Glulam, I-Joist, LVL and SCL) Boise Cascade Company-White City, Oregon

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