Safety is Fully Integrated at Honeywell Aerospace

You can't separate safety from the business operations at Honeywell Aerospace – EHS functions are fully integrated into all that the company does.

Honeywell Aerospace, a business group of Honeywell International, is a global provider of integrated avionics, propulsion engines, aircraft and full-service solutions. With 45,000 employees worldwide at 100 locations, the company drives performance in safety, quality, delivery, cost and inventory through its Honeywell Operating System and fully integrated safety and health programs.

"Strong leadership support, fantastic employee engagement and a strong management system that is truly integrated into the Honeywell Operating System are at the core of our success," says Ed Osborne, CSP,  director of HSE operations and management systems.

It's a success that, in 2011, yielded a .11 lost-time injury rate across 35,000 U.S. employees working in a variety of complex tasks with high degrees of risk. The company's dedicated and exhaustive efforts to promote safety include a focus on hazard identification, analysis and control; risk management; safety and health best practice sharing; a compliance assurance plan; and programs like the Behavior Observation Process, which enables leaders and workers alike to positively influence critical safety and health behaviors.

Individual sites are given flexibility in how to handle the Behavior Observation Process based on their own needs. "We provide a lot of guidance to the site on how they can implement the process," Osborne explains. "But we leave it to them to define what their critical behaviors are and give sites the latitude to define what really makes sense to them."

At Honeywell Aerospace, no safety issue or preventative behavior is considered too large or too small. Targeted prevention programs aim to raise awareness of and reduce the risk for specific types of injuries. For example, the program focusing on lacerations led to a nearly 50-percent reduction in this injury type from 2010 to 2011.

"Sometimes, the perceived minor issues are what really cause the most problems, so we have to be diligent," Osborne says. "Material handling or lifting is something we're refreshing right now – not because it's a negative trend, but because it's something we haven't had a focused effort around in a year or two."

It's this type of proactive, ahead-of-the-game thinking that helps keep the work force safe and protected. Employees can also rest easy knowing that the company has their backs, particularly during emergencies: This year, the Honeywell Hometown Solutions and Honeywell Humanitarian Relief Fund assisted employees affected by the Colorado wildfires. Displaced employees and their families received immediate cash assistance and help with long-term solutions. It's just one more sign of a company that has safety running straight to its core.

"By integrating health, safety and environmental considerations into all aspects of our business, we protect our employees, our communities and the environment, achieve sustainable growth and accelerated productivity, drive compliance with all applicable regulations and develop technologies that expand the sustainable capacity of our world," reads the company's Sustainable Opportunity Policy.