Although Safety Week is really every week here at Mid-States Concrete Industries, the nationally-recognized Construction Safety Week is May 2 – May 6 this year. And since safety is above all else at Mid-States, we are recognizing Safety Week by spotlighting our current safety team. We will also host a Safety Stand-Down at 10:30 am on Tuesday, May 3, in the parking lot of our plant in South Beloit.

Mike Wolff, Vice President of Safety and Quality
Mike joined the Mid-States team 15 years ago as Quality Manager. He was also very involved with the Safety Committee at the time since he had previous experience in safety/ergonomics. Through some restructuring to make Mid-States even more efficient, it wasn’t long before Safety and Quality were combined, with Mike at the helm.

“Both disciplines are structured around data,” Mike said. “If it is a defect or an injury, solid root cause and corrective actions have to be implemented. Training, inspection, and auditing are key aspects of both quality and safety.”

During Mike’s time with Mid-States, the safety program has come a long way, which Mike is very proud of. He has always had a passion for safety, with a background as both an EMT and firefighter. Now, instead of responding to injuries and emergencies, his role is trying to prevent them.

“Everyone needs to go home from work the same way they came in,” Mike said. “A major injury can be life-changing for any one of us.”

Dealing with COVID and the resulting staffing challenges, the safety team’s response has been increased Standard Work Instruction (SWI) and Job Safety Analysis (JSA) training, along with increased safety inspections and touch points for our team members.

Currently, the team is working on several projects, including working with a prototype manufacturer to develop machinery that would help reduce back injuries; revising all SWIs and JSAs to increase employee involvement and continuous improvement of safety and productivity; working with OSHA to determine new strategies to lower near misses; and working on a research project with UW-Whitewater regarding strain injuries and how to prevent them.

“I love the collaboration of our team when driving safety improvements,” Mike said. “Watching us all work together to make Mid-States a safer organization is very rewarding.”

Tracy Miller, Safety Manager
Tracy joined the Mid-States team eight-and-a-half years ago. In her role, she oversees all things safety. When Tracy joined the team, it was in an administrative assistant role that supported both HR and production. In 2016, her role started to evolve more to the safety side of things, and she helped to create a safety team.

“Safety affects everything, to me anyway,” Tracy said. “Everything can be tied to safety. From a clean work area to guys being able to get their job done efficiently and be able to go home and not put in a bunch of overtime and be frustrated.”

Her favorite part of being involved in safety is that it is something different every day and she would always rather be over-the-top on safety than underperform when it comes to safety. She also really likes having the opportunity to see that “lightbulb moment” in people, the moment it really clicks for them why some safety policy or procedure is so important.

“It helps our morale because we don’t just say we care about safety,” Tracy said. “We do it (safety) and we track it.”

Tracy’s current focuses include providing new hire safety training, getting out into the field more to complete field audits, and spending more time auditing processes in general to make sure we haven’t started taking shortcuts or getting complacent. That means putting lots of effort into making sure all SWIs are updated and correct, and that the team is trained on them and following them.

“It’s important because people know exactly what they are supposed to do then, so there is no confusion,” Tracy said of SWIs. “Ideally, a perfect SWI means anybody would be able to walk in and follow it and perform that task safely and efficiently. Safety and efficiency go hand-in-hand. If things aren’t efficient, you start rushing and getting frustrated and then safety isn’t your foremost thought.”

The most challenging part of Tracy’s job is process-creep, making sure that people follow all the processes all the time. But she is up to the challenge.

Jeff Morris, Continuous Improvement Safety Coordinator/QC Supervisor/Safety Trainer/Union Steward
Jeff joined the Mid-States team about 10 years ago for what he thought would be a short, seasonal stint while he waited for his seasonal job to resume. Mid-States offers year-round employment. But, about a month in, he was made a foreman and two-and-a-half years later he was still at Mid-States. At the time, Mike Wolff approached Jeff about starting a new department totally dedicated to safety and continuous improvement.

“I thought I would be good at it,” Jeff said, though he did take a night to think about it.

You see, Mike told Jeff that before he accepted the position, he had to really think about how he would feel if he had to go and tell someone’s family they were no longer here because of an accident at work. Once Jeff thought about it, he knew that was a responsibility he could take on because he would do everything in his power to make sure people did not get hurt and he’d never have to make that house call.

“I want to see the guys go home the way they came in to work and go home to their families,” Jeff said.

In Jeff’s role, he spends a lot of time conducting safety audits at the plant; is involved in all set up and training of how to run all the equipment; is responsible for coordinating hazardous waste removal with the EPA; and conducts lots of safety training with both new hires and existing team members.

Currently, he is focused on getting back to a “clean house” and getting more stringent in our housekeeping procedures. For example, he said if the team puts their tools back, they always know where they are, and don’t have to go searching for them. Plus, it’s safer.

“It cuts down on trip hazards, fall hazards, and impalement hazards,” he said.

Jeff is also focused on updating SWIs and providing SWI retraining to the team. The safety team is currently conducting multiple training sessions every week in which they take the SWI for a task, walk through it with the time to ensure they are properly following the procedures and clarifying any confusion, as needed. The goal is to complete all the training and retraining this year and finish the year with as few recordables as possible.

“We currently have two and the two we have are because procedures weren’t followed,” Jeff said. “This is why it is so important to retrain on the SWIs and make sure everyone knows what the appropriate procedure is.”

Ryan Santas, Safety Intern
Ryan is in the midst of his Capstone Internship as he completes his studies at UW – Whitewater as a safety major.

It was through job shadowing a friend of his father’s that Ryan first found being able to help workers and prevent injuries an interesting career path. He really enjoys being part of all the action in coming up with new ways to do things that benefit workers through both safety and efficiency.

While working his Capstone Internship at Mid-States, Ryan is focused on an official process for light duty work and a way for workers to continue to work at Mid-States after their injury and within their restrictions. This includes a checklist for light duty work and creating a process from injury all the way through full work release. He is also part of the SWI revisions and training/retraining of team members, as well as creating SWIs where we’ve found gaps as we go through our revisions and training.

“I think the goal of any safety person is to have a culture like this,” Ryan said of Mid-States. “It is created through all the different processes. It’s a holistic approach towards safety.”

The most important part of the work the safety team is doing is that the team is preventing issues rather than fixing them by making sure we have adequate processes to identify potential risks before they become issues, Ryan said.

While his goal is to work in the insurance industry helping businesses learn to operate as safely as possible, Ryan’s advice to other student’s looking to get into the field is to get as many internships as you can and learn as much as you can – and not just about safety, but also understanding the business as a whole.