How DuPont Has Survived for Over 200 Years | Management

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Let me start with a true story: One evening, after work, an employee who had recently joined DuPont was driving home when his car collided with another vehicle. Since no serious consequences occurred, the incident was resolved quickly. The employee believed that the accident did not occur during working hours, and since he was driving his personal car, he did not report it to the company. Later, DuPont learned about this and fired this highly capable young man. The reason is simple: he failed to report the accident, and he wasn’t wearing a seat belt at the time of the incident. Even for minor matters, even outside working hours, DuPont has zero tolerance for such unsafe behaviors. It is said that it is precisely this sense of security that has enabled DuPont to survive for 213 years. In the business world, DuPont, with a history of 213 years, is considered a \"longevity star.\" What is DuPont’s secret to longevity? There may be many answers, but one that is recognized by the global business community is that this company possesses a safety gene embedded in its ‘organism’ that has endured for a century. Understanding safety: The greatest loss is intangible. Safety management is the foundation for living a stable life. DuPont was originally a small company that produced ink. Given the danger associated with the products, the company attaches great importance to safety management. The company’s founder, E•I•DuPont, chose the site along the banks of the Brandywine River. For workshops that produce hazardous materials, thick brick walls on all four sides and a sturdy roof are usually required, but E•I•DuPont insisted on having brick walls on three sides, with only a thin roof on the side facing the river. His reasoning is that in the event of an accident, this design would reduce losses by directing the force of the explosion toward the thinner roof. Even so, it was a difficult and arduous process for DuPont to establish a comprehensive safety management system. In 1815, an accident occurred at a DuPont factory, resulting in 9 deaths. From then on, E•I•DuPont established pensions for orphans and widows. The DuPont family moved into the factory to show they shared the workers’ fate. In 1818, a terrible explosion occurred due to a worker drinking alcohol, resulting in 40 deaths. Later, E.I. DuPont required its employees to abstain from alcohol at work, devised a system of mutual benefits and profit-sharing, and implemented overtime and night-shift pay systems. In 1954, a carriage transporting ** in the city center exploded at DuPont Company, which was then known as the “world’s largest ** factory”. The coach driver and two citizens lost their lives. Thereafter, DuPont built a belt road away from the busy areas of the city to transport these hazardous materials. These measures are precisely what makes DuPont so brilliant. Handling accidents in a human-centered manner and eliminating their negative effects not only stabilizes the company’s employees but also helps to establish a positive image of the company among the public and the media, thereby achieving the goal that \"safe business operations are successful business operations.\" http://downbbs.anquan.com.cn/attachmen2010/forum/201611/04/135747f311yicriisvybmv.jpg Through repeated cycles of making mistakes, correcting them, and establishing proper systems, DuPont’s management and employees gradually realized that for a company or organization to ensure effective safety management, it is crucial to properly understand the importance of safety as well as the losses caused by accidents. In the event of an accident, the greatest losses are intangible; the impact on employee morale, customer relationships, and the company’s reputation is often 5 to 10 times greater than the direct financial losses. With such an understanding, it is not difficult to establish a mature safety management system. Build consensus: All accidents can be prevented. Let’s take a look at the safe behavior of DuPont employees: always use the handrails when going up and down stairs ； The first thing to do after getting in the car is always to fasten the seatbelt ； I won’t go to shops with inadequate safety facilities just for the delicious food, and I usually choose to eat at the tables on the first floor near the entrance of a restaurant ； When staying in a hotel, I choose a lower floor ； The first thing to do when holding a meeting or organizing an event is to emphasize safety and let everyone know where the exit routes are… These seemingly trivial procedural rules are actually closely linked to DuPont’s safety philosophy. In the 1940s, managers at DuPont introduced the concept that \"all accidents can be prevented.\" During the previous 100 years of development, many people believed that accidents were inevitable, and that all efforts were merely aimed at delaying their occurrence. However, DuPont’s managers believe that with determination, there must be a way to prevent accidents from occurring. To this end, DuPont primarily eliminates potential hazards through protection to create a safe working environment ； Set an example for management ； Establish disciplinary guidelines for safe operations to provide managers with a basis for assessing safety conditions ； Raising the level of safety management through technology, including upgrading safety protection equipment and methods. Some companies attribute the occurrence of accidents to inadequate equipment. In fact, 96% of accidents are caused by unsafe behaviors, rather than unsafe equipment. Every 300,000 unsafe acts may result in 1 fatal accident. http://downbbs.anquan.com.cn/attachmen2010/forum/201611/04/135748cp1nw0f61lakkzw1.jpg On this basis, DuPont’s management set the safety goal of \"zero accidents\". DuPont’s safety record shows that its employees are 10 times safer at the workplace than at home, with over 60% of its plants achieving a “zero injury rate”. The company saves millions of dollars in expenses each year as a result. Moreover, DuPont never purchases property insurance; it relies on investments in safety and a robust safety management system to ensure safe production, without incurring additional costs related to insurance. Today, DuPont is recognized as the safest company in the United States. “Safety is a strategically important business value. It serves as a catalyst for enterprises to achieve outstanding business performance; it not only enhances productivity and profitability but also helps in building a lasting brand image. ”This is the \"safety philosophy\" that DuPont employees have been sharing with the world. Leading by example: The effect of setting a good example is tremendous. Every day at 8:45 a.m., at DuPont’s German plant, the manager of DuPont’s polyester and nylon production facilities and his assistants review what has happened over the past 24 hours. The first thing they discussed was not production, but safety. DuPont’s managers attach great importance to safety and practice what they preach; this is a key reason for the effective control of the accident rate. Before 1935, there was no Labor Law in the United States. In other words, when E.I. DuPont moved his entire family into the factory, it wasn’t due to legal obligations, but rather out of a sense of “responsibility for the safety of employees”. This spirit not only brought DuPont back to life at a critical moment when it was on the verge of bankruptcy, but it was also passed down in the form of systems. In 1818, DuPont established a system in which management took responsibility for safety, meaning that safe production was the duty of production managers—general managers, plant directors, and department heads—not of the safety department. This system has now evolved into the well-known “inspiring leadership.” DuPont requires that everyone, from top decision-makers to frontline production staff, must actively participate in safety management. The heads of various departments are the ones responsible for ensuring safety within those departments, and the safety performance of the entire company as well as its individual departments is directly linked to the financial interests and career prospects of the CEO and the department heads. At DuPont, the strictest system is the accident reporting system. This system requires that, in any **, region, or factory, employees must report work-related injury incidents (situations where an employee is unable to return to work the following day due to an injury) to DuPont’s CEO within 24 hours through their department head. Of course, such opportunities are not very common. In addition, DuPont also has dedicated safety personnel. Their responsibility is to ensure that regulations and rules are strictly followed, to correct technical issues promptly, and to increase the safety factor. Some companies in our country place the burden of safety on the safety management departments. Typically, this department does not have a thorough understanding of safety production in all positions and processes, which results in an attempt to manage everything yet failing to manage anything properly. Under stringent management, for over 200 years, DuPont has been driving the advancement of safety concepts, technologies, and systems. Today, in the business world, many companies use DuPont as a benchmark when evaluating security technology standards. Some even say that “DuPont” and “safety” have become synonymous. http://downbbs.anquan.com.cn/attachmen2010/forum/201611/04/135748ds6yc6a7a97s7a77.jpg How can DuPont’s safety management practices be implemented in Chinese companies? Question: How did DuPont develop employee safety behavior patterns from natural instinctive reactions to collaborative team management? Although this falls under the realm of safety culture development, what lies behind it is the role of corporate management mechanisms and the accumulation of history. The top executives and all employees of the enterprise must regard safety as a core corporate value, unwaveringly adhere to the company’s ten safety management principles, and use safety management systems to regulate their decisions and actions. Generally speaking, for a newly built or acquired plant of DuPont, it takes 3 to 5 years for its safety management level to reach the company’s average level. Q: In situations where there are many safety management steps, how does DuPont ensure safety without affecting work efficiency? DuPont’s management believes that efficiency and speed are not synonymous concepts. From the perspective of a company’s entire life cycle or its overall efficiency, a safe approach is actually the most efficient one. Because safety management thinking reflects the operation of a company following scientifically designed steps. No matter what kind of company it is, if it does not operate in a systematic manner, the result is the need for more supervision, more complex processes, and more managers, which in turn leads to lower efficiency. Question: How are employee safety performance evaluations conducted? How does this evaluation system motivate employees? The globally recognized best practices in performance management are reflected in DuPont. However, the influence of DuPont’s safety culture is the most important; evaluations are merely a supplementary measure. There are two points that other companies can learn from. First, there is no one-size-fits-all approach; positions are assigned based on specific requirements, and targets are set according to each position and individual, with differentiated assessment methods being used. Secondly, line managers have the authority to assess performance and make appointments or dismisses; the human resources department merely coordinates, supervises, supports, and respects the decisions of line managers. Question: How can companies prevent mere formality when conducting safety training? There are no shortcuts to safety training for employees; it must be carried out thoroughly. At DuPont, when conducting safety training for employees, it is the heads of functional departments who are responsible, rather than the HR department. The advantage of doing this is that the functional departments can proceed from the job requirements. Solid training has benefited the entire department ； “If it’s just a formality, it’s this department that will suffer the consequences. If the HR department is in charge, training tends to become overly general and lacks specificity. Question: How can DuPont’s safety management model be effectively applied in Chinese state-owned enterprises? DuPont’s management believes that due to differences in mechanisms, the safety management model cannot be fully replicated in Chinese state-owned enterprises. However, the principles of safety management are the same. Therefore, the advantages of state-owned enterprises should be utilized, and things should be handled in accordance with established rules, so that the level of safety management will continue to improve. State-owned enterprises have political advantages, as well as the advantage of being able to concentrate resources on undertaking major tasks. Furthermore, it is very important to strengthen safety management awareness concepts such as \"Safety must be taken into account in all work activities\" and \"Safety is the responsibility of the top leader.\" 【Security Management Tools】 Security management is a gradual process. Generally, companies first identify problems through practice, then develop experience in safety management. Through continuous improvement, they acquire new experience, which is gradually summarized, and this cycle repeats itself to establish a comprehensive safety management system. It can be seen that the basic logic of the Deming cycle (also known as the PDCA cycle) can help companies establish a safety management system. The Deming cycle is a model for continuous improvement. It includes 4 cyclic steps, namely Plan, Do, Check, and Act. http://downbbs.anquan.com.cn/attachmen2010/forum/201611/04/135748diai9wda0n80nd30.jpg Advantages of the Deming cycle: The Deming cycle is suitable for daily management, as well as for individual and team management. The Deming cycle is a process of identifying and solving problems, which helps to achieve continuous improvement and enhancement, and is useful for supplier management, human resource management, and more. Three characteristics of the Deming cycle: 1. A large loop with smaller loops. If the work of the entire company is viewed as a large Deming cycle, then each department, team, and subgroup has its own smaller Deming cycles. The larger ring drives the smaller ring, organically forming a functioning system. 2. Steady upward progression. The Deming cycle does not operate at the same level; with each cycle, some problems are solved and the level improves slightly. In the next cycle, there are new goals and content, taking things to the next level. 3. Comprehensive application of scientific management methods. The Deming cycle is a statistical processing method based primarily on the seven QC tools, as well as methods from industrial engineering (IE), and is used as a tool for solving problems. 【Numbers on DuPont’s safety management】 0.12: The annual accident rate at DuPont’s factories in the United States is 0.12 accidents per 100 workers, which is equivalent to 1/23 of the average accident rate among all manufacturers in the U.S. 26 million: Roughly speaking, if DuPont’s safety management standards were reduced to the average level of related industries in the United States, an additional 26 million dollars would be required for compensation and other related purposes. 10: DuPont’s quantitative safety management indicators are 10 times higher than the industry average. At DuPont, employees are 10 times safer at work than at home. [Chart News] DuPont’s Safety Management Record: Shortly after its establishment, DuPont set up dedicated safety management departments and personnel, and became one of the first companies in the world to establish safety regulations. In 1911, DuPont established the world’s first corporate safety committee. The following year, DuPont began to conduct safety statistics and analysis. In the 1940s, DuPont explicitly proposed the concept that \"all accidents can be prevented.\" This concept was later widely disseminated. In 1953, DuPont began to track safety conditions for its employees outside working hours. In 1990, DuPont established the “Excellence in Safety, Health, and Environmental Protection Award.” In 1998, DuPont’s Safety Management Consulting Department was established. This department shares DuPont’s safety management experience and knowledge with over 1,500 companies around the world.