Health and safety of its workforce is a core value of UltraTech. Safety is at the centre of everything we do - from the daily routines in our plants to our customers' worksites and our actions in our neighbouring communities. We aspire to conduct our business with zero harm to the people we work with and to create a healthy and safe environment for our employees, contractors, suppliers, communities, customers and all stakeholders. We have a 'zero tolerance' policy in place and we conduct business with vendors who are approved on our stringent safety parameters. Also, 80%+ of our plants certified to OHSAS 18001/ISO 45001 standards.
Our Safety excellence programs are driven by line function engagement through well-structured governance model from corporate to units. Our Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) Board is chaired by our Managing Director and nine subcommittees are chaired by Cluster Heads/Functional Heads. The OH&S Board is the decision-making body of UltraTech to oversee that Safety Standards are implemented in letter and spirit across the organization by line management ownership.
We believe assurance is a very important element in sustenance and continual improvement in the safety management system. Considering the pandemic situation, we have been conducting virtual safety audit by using head-mounted devices connected through the internet by trained auditors from other units or by third party expert auditors. It has also been our conscious endeavour to utilize evolving technologies to further enhance effectiveness of safety system at our workplace. Application of video analytics for real time intervention, data analytics to pinpoint improvement areas, AI based safety chatbot, etc., are some of the efforts in that direction.
We are aligned with Global Cement & Concrete Association (GCCA) to make sure that global practices on safety from cement industries are integrated into our safety excellence journey. We strive to achieve them through concrete actions and piloted solutions to make UltraTech a safer place to work.
We believe that if we are good in safety, then we are good in achieving new milestones in business. Safety is a critical success factor for our operational performance and is integrated in all our business decisions including green field/brown field projects, mergers, acquisitions, performance evaluation, hiring new recruits etc.
Training through digitalisation
To proactively address the challenges of worker safety, health, and well-being and to achieve our organisational goal of ‘Zero Harm’, our company adapted the concept of training through digitalisation. For the same, explanatory Virtual Reality (VR)-enabled immersive training modules, that seamlessly guide workers through simulation of high-risk activities, was chosen for this purpose.
The modules comprised use of computer modelling and simulation that enables a person to interact with an artificial three-dimensional (3D) visual hazard, interact with it, understand its risks and consequences and ultimately, learn the safest way of doing the activity to avoid any negative consequences.
To address ‘At-Risk behaviour’ to inform contract workmen about workplace hazards and associated risks, each module (about 4-5 minutes) had various steps, including the dos and Don’ts of the task. At the end of the training, users were assessed about the understanding of the task and the system generates automatic reports. This initiative has over 14,000 workers trained and evaluated on 30 different VR modules. There has been a 50 per cent decrease in lost time injuries and fatal risk prevention related LTIs have decreased by 3 per cent. The Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) has reduced by 45 per cent.
