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Benefits | Diversity | Health & Safety

The health and safety of our employees is of paramount importance. We have a number of initiatives across the company to continue to improve our performance in this area. We measure health and safety performance by tracking the number of cases where an accident results in an employee losing at least one day from work. We are proud of our performance and ability to reduce accidents. The chart below shows how our lost workday injury rate has decreased from 2005.

Various business units have been recognized for their success in this area. Gulfstream received the 2007 Savannah Area Manufacturers Council Award for Safety for setting the standard in a safe work environment. Gulfstream maintains an injury rate less than one-quarter of the industry average, and attributes this success to three major programs: safety awareness, safety training, and medical management/worker’s compensation. Gulfstream’s robust injury prevention program encompasses the use of ergonomics and musculoskeletal disorder prevention by using process and equipment that support and match the capabilities of the employees.

Land Systems received the Pennsylvania Governor’s safety award due to their commitment to the teaming process where bargaining unit employees perform various safety functions including daily safety talks and incident investigation. This has lead to a 68% reduction in the injury rate at Scranton. Management and bargaining unit employees are shown below receiving the award.

A second health and safety metric we use is counting the total number of days that are lost. The chart that tracks this performance is also shown below.

Ordnance & Tactical Systems implemented several ergonomic initiatives to reduce repetitive motion injuries. These include an early intervention system utilizing an occupational nurse to provide ergonomic exercises and specific training, and an Ergonomic Job Measurement System (EJMS) to quantify ergonomic risk, justify capital expenditures, and prioritize action plans. Shown below is a fixture that was developed through this process to eliminate repetitive motion injuries. Rather than manually screw protective caps onto the part, a fixture was developed to hold the part with a foot pedal activated mechanism which rotates the cap onto the part.

At General Dynamics Electric Boat, a wooden submarine mock-up is used to establish training work stations that resemble actual working conditions. This new training tool was developed with the support of management and the Metal Trades Council (MTC) labor union. Training is run entirely by members of the MTC. Thirteen instructors develop and teach the skills that workers need to be safe while working in the shipyard at designated stations in the mock-up. Each station provides real examples of the hazards the workforce faces and methods to prevent injuries that could occur from these hazards. Employees are engaged because the instructors are their peers. The program is a resounding success, earning praise from the instructors, students, and management and has had a direct impact on reducing injuries at Electric Boat. A picture of employees being trained in the mock-up is shown below.

Health & Safety is more than preventing injuries. Advanced Information Systems has prepared to handle emergencies by instituting two successful employee involvement programs supporting emergency preparedness: the MERT/ERT (Medical / Emergency Response Team) and the Evacuation Coordinators. Employee members of these programs assist in managing a variety of emergencies and have received training in their duties such as CPR, First Aid and emergency response, as applicable. Almost 400 employees participate in these two programs throughout the country.

Bath Iron Works initiated a comprehensive audit of all facilities to determine if there were potential combustible dust issues. The audit involved a visual inspection of the most remote areas of the facilities where dust from a variety of shipbuilding processes may have accumulated. It also involved a review of all our dust-producing activities to determine if control processes were adequate to prevent a dust related problem. Four areas were identified as needing a thorough cleaning, and two dust collection systems were updated to comply with the most current dust collection standards.

These initiatives are examples of the programs instituted across General Dynamics to improve the health and safety of our employees. These and other initiatives have enabled us to achieve the improvement evidenced in the graphs in this section.

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