Green Tape on All 3-Pronged Electrical Tools & Extension Cords as of 4/1/14!

Good morning to all I.D.I. employees:

All Safety Coordinators should have been provided a roll of green electrical tape. We begin a new quarter on 4/1/14 for our Assured Grounding Program. To help ensure we are in compliance with safety regulations and for the safety of our employees, we need your help by inspecting, testing and color-coding with green tape all 3-pronged electrical tools and extension cords. All electrical tools and cords need to be visually inspected. If you see any defects in the cords such as bare wires, severe kinks, missing or damaged ground prong, the cord pulling away from the plug end-housing, etc., then that tool or cord would need to be immediately removed from service and reported to your lead field supervisor. If your tool/cord passes the visual inspection, your next step is to test the cord with a receptacle tester. First, you should test the oulet that you will be plugging your cord into to ensure that it is properly wired. You should see 2 yellow lights lit up on your tester and the red light should be off. This means the outlet is working appropriately. Next, plug your cord into the outlet and then test the cord with the receptacle tester. Again, you should see the same light pattern as mentioned above and this would mean the cord passed the test and it is good and safe to use. Any other light pattern means that there is a problem with the cord and the cord needs to be removed from service and reported to your lead person. If the cord passes the visual inspection and the cord tester test, you should then remove the previous quarter's white electrical tape and install the green electrical tape about 1" down from both plug ends. Your cord is now in compliance with our 2nd quarter Assured Grounding Program. The green tape shall remain in place from 4/1/14 through 6/30/14. You are not quite done yet! You now need to visually inspect all electrical cords and tools on a daily basis and if any defects are found, the cord needs to be immediately removed from service.

Thank you for taking the time to ensure your electrical tools and cords are in safe working order. Your actions may prevent one of our family members from sustaining an electrical shock type injury or worse yet, an electrocution. If you have any questions regarding our Assured Grounding Program, please call our Safety Director, Peter Graham, at (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!

Baker Scaffold Wheels & What To Do!

Good afternoon to all I.D.I. employees,

 

Your new Field Safety Committee is off to a great start with identifying a few safety matters that we are addressing.  The committee advised that there are on occasions, times when they are working at a job site and the task calls for a baker scaffold.  While on the ground they set up a baker scaffold and lock all 4 baker scaffold wheels.  Then when they mount onto the scaffold, the additional weight causes a baker scaffold wheel to come unlocked.   

Our warehouse manager oversees the task of all of our equipment being inspected for safety and maintained before equipment gets sent out into the field and he does an awesome job with this.  If defective equipment is found, it is repaired if it can be without changing the structural integrity of the equipment and if it can’t be repaired, the equipment gets destroyed.   Our baker scaffold wheels and locking mechanisms are included with what gets inspected at the shop.  Now there are times when a baker scaffold is transferred from a job site directly to another job site.  Our drivers will inspect the equipment when making the transfer, but, out in the field, an employee might find that a baker scaffold wheel unlocks when weight is placed upon the baker scaffold.  This scenario is hard to always uncover.

We feel there is a simple fix and we just need your help and communication.  At our last volunteer quarterly safety meeting held in February, 2014, one of the training topics was specifically on baker scaffold safety and we discussed and trained on inspecting baker scaffolds and all its components.  If you are using a baker scaffold and have a wheel or wheels where the brakes won’t lock or stay locked when occupied, you need to remove that wheel from service.  Then, simply notify your Superintendent and/or our Safety Director and we will provide you with a baker scaffold wheel or wheels with working locks. 

 

We thank the Field Safety Committee for bringing this to our attention.  This is one of the exact reasons why we have the field safety committee; to help uncover hidden potential hazards and to help provide solutions. 

 

Great job Field Safety Committee – (Brian Vicicondi, Rafael Nunez, Ricardo Villagomez, Dennis Johnson & Keith Rehn)

 

If you have any questions about this at all, you are encouraged to call our Safety Director, Peter at (847) 417-1689. 

Have a Safe Day!

Safety - Still On A Roll!

Good morning to all I.D.I. employees,

Just updating everyone on our streak of consecutive days worked between lost-time injuries.  Our last lost-time injury was 307 days ago so we passed the 300 day milestone.  Our next milestone goal is to have worked 1 full year without a lost-time injury so we are 58 days away from that goal.  I will continue to keep everyone updated as to when we reach the 365 day or 1 year milestone.  After we surpass that, our next milestone is the 435 day mark which was our best run in the past 15 years which we did in 2008. 

Lets keep this safety train rolling straight down the track and shoot for our upcoming milestones.

To do this, we all need to be on the same page and looking out for one another. If you observe someone not working in a safe manner, please reach out to them for their own well-being and on behalf of their loved ones and talk to them about stopping what they are doing unsafely. It is in all of our best interest that all of us perform in a safe appropriate manner. Injuries are no fun for anyone especially the injured employee and his family members. Your loved ones depend on you to work safely and to come home to them in an injury-free and healthy manner. The next time you catch yourself working unsafe, ask yourself why? Why am I working unsafe?  Is it because I feel I don't have time to go grab a pair of safety glasses? Is it because I don't have time to go get safety rails for my scaffold because I have to get the job done? The jobs always do get done and they get done in a more professional and appropriate manner when done safely. If an injury occurs at a project, the job won't make any money. Just like production, when it comes to safety, do it right and do it right the first time!

Keep in mind I.D.I.'s Safety Mission Statement: "Everyone Goes Home Alive and in the Same Condition as They Arrived; Your Loved Ones Count On It!"

Have a Safe Day!

New Field Safety Committee Has Formed!

Good morning to all I.D.I. employees,

Just letting everyone know that we have formed our new 2014 Field Safety Committee.  The following are the new members and their respective divisions:  Framer - Keith Rehn, Drywaller - Ricardo Villagomez, Acoustic Carpenter - Brian Vicicondi, Painter - Dennis Johnson & Taper - Rafael Nunez. 

Our first meeting with the new group is tomorrow, Tuesday, 3/18/14 at 3:00pm.  If you have any safety concerns that you would like addressed, you can ask the Field Safety Committee Members to bring your concerns to the meeting and we will discuss them with the goal of coming up with a resolution. 

Please, congratulate them (make fun of them) when you see them.  These 5 employees along with me, Safety Pete, will work on safety agenda items to help make all of our employees careers safer.  What they do is very meaningful towards your safety and for the sake of your loved ones.

Have a Safe Day!

I.D.I. - Asking Family Members/Loved Ones to Write Letter(s) as to Why You Should Work Safe!!!!!

Good morning to all I.D.I. employees:  Below is a copy of a letter that is being mailed to all of your homes later this week, however, we wanted to start out by advertising this now.  

Dear I.D.I. employee,

To help make our company safer and to encourage you to work in the safest manner possible, we are asking you to have a loved one, a family member, a spouse, a child or someone who cares about you, to write you a letter as to why they want or need for you to work safe. 

This can be a simple letter or they can do this in a video format.  There are no specifics such as minimum amount of paragraphs, pages, etc.  It can be short and simple or as long as they need to express why they want and/or need for you to work safe.  It can be handwritten, typed, they can include hand drawn pictures or however they want to do it.  There really are no rules.  They can be as simple or as creative as they want to be.

We are then asking them to send in the letters and/or videos to our Safety Director, Peter Graham sometime before April 10, 2014.  If it is a letter, it can be faxed to (847) 526-7444.  It can be mailed to International Decorators at 28059 W. Commercial Ave., Barrington, IL. 60010 to the attention of Peter Graham.  You can bring the letter to work and hand it to a driver, your Superintendent or to me when you see one of us.  A letter or video can also be e-mailed to me at pgraham@4idi.com.

After April 10^th, we will review all the letters and videos and select 3 winners.  We will reward the 3 winners with $100.00 gift cards.  We plan on reading some of the letters and showing some of the videos at our May 31, 2014 volunteer quarterly safety meeting.  We also encourage you to bring your loved ones with you to the May volunteer quarterly safety meeting so we can present them with the gift card and so they can learn more about what you do for a living and to see why your safety is so important and valued at I.D.I.  We will let you know before the meeting if your loved ones was one of the letters/videos that will be shown at the safety meeting. 

If you or your loved ones have any questions, please call me at (847) 417-1689. 

Have a Safe Day!

Peter Graham - Safety Director

 

Next Volunteer Quarterly Safety Meeting - 5/31/14

Good afternoon to all I.D.I. employees:

Just letting everyone know the date of our next volunteer quarterly safety meeting.  Due to some events like Mother's Day, Memorial Day weekend, etc., we have scheduled the next volunteer quarterly safety meeting on Saturday, 5/31/14 at 7:00am.  The meeting will be held at it's usual location in our warehouse at 28059 W. Commercial Ave. in Barrington.  We just wanted to put the word out so you have plenty of notice.  We will advertise the meeting as we get closer to the meeting date.  It will be advertised in our Quarterly Safety Newsletter that gets mailed to everyone's home, you will receive a meeting notice stuffer in your paycheck envelope and I will send out another e-mail blast or 2 down the road. 

In the meantime - be safe for your loved ones and of course for yourself!

Have a Safe Day!

Scissor Lift Safety??? Oldie but a Goodie!

Good afternoon to all I.D.I. employees:

The February weather may not have been so good but we did have a terrific February as we had ZERO injuries.  Great job to everyone on coming together as a team to make this happen.  Let's see if we can string together several months of being injury-free.  Our last lost-time injury occurred 288 days ago.  Our record for the past 15 years was 435 consecutive days between lost-time injuries.  We are over half way to breaking this milestone record.  Having zero lost-time injuries benefits everyone especially the employees and their families.  If not for yourself, be safe for your those who care about you and count on you being there for them.  Our safety mission statement is what safety at I.D.I. is all about:  "Everyone Goes Home Alive and in the Same Condition as They Arrived; Your Loved Ones Count On It." 

Now for a little weekend safety humor - Here's an oldie but a goodie about Steve operating a scissor lift.  Steve is obviously not an employee of I.D.I.

To make the video larger, you should be able to click on the box in the lower right corner of the video once you open it. 

Have a Safe Weekend!