'As a company, we are very committed to health and safety, and we believe that adhering to these practices in-house is the basis of producing great products for our customers. As a global team we're very committed to health, safety, environment and quality, which is really driven by our global teams who work shifts and who commit to upholding great safety standards day in, day out,' explains Dries Cuypers, Quality, Environment Health and Safety Coordinator, AR Metallizing Belgium. 

Where it gets more complicated is that health and safety can be viewed very differently – interestingly, everyone has their own vision of what safety is, how to pay attention, what 'being careful' means and how to practice caution. While learning about others' views is always insightful, when it comes to safety in our plants, there's no compromise. 'Whenever we bring new employees into the workforce here in Belgium, I spend a lot of time really underlining what our safety values are as a company, which helps align these contrasting visions and make sure there is uniformity in what we are doing. More than following safety instructions, it's also important that colleagues understand the logic behind it why these processes are in place,' explains Dries.

In theory, safety is a relatively simple task: follow the theories and don't deviate from the procedure, and things will run smoothly. The practicalities can be different, and it's a concept that Dries agrees with. 'It's easy to learn theory and processes in a classroom, but in practice, you have to work with other equipment and safety features to understand and apply what you know. An essential part of my work is to train people and give them the tools they need so that if they encounter a new situation that we haven't covered in a theoretical discussion, the team can assess which are the right actions to take by themselves – regardless of what has happened.'  

And what about safety in the future?

After all, machinery and manufacturing developments never stay still, and safety systems and standards are always evolving. 'We work hard to stay agile as a company as we work to continue to push ourselves to uphold the best health and safety standards. Employees that can work in different areas is becoming more and more the norm, and a result, safety is evolving – people and teams need to be able to apply their knowledge while they work on different machinery in multifaceted roles. As a result, health and safety is continually developing to ensure that safety in these new working situations is always upheld,' says Dries.