John Deere's long commitment to safety and health in the workplace is integrated into the company's operations through the John Deere Environmental, Health & Safety Management System. The system is a set of formal, documented processes for controlling environmental, health and safety impacts and driving continuous improvement, and promoting a healthy workplace through health management programs.

Employee safety is the responsibility of all employees, and training is extensive, from initial employee orientation sessions to a required curriculum for global unit managers, and intermediate and advanced curricula for EHS professionals.

At many John Deere units, occupational health and industrial hygiene professionals help evaluate potential exposures to hazardous materials, manage employee injuries and illnesses, and protect the confidentiality of medical information.

John Deere sponsors programs, such as health risk assessments and coaching, to help employees maintain and improve health and manage their personal and work-life needs. The company also has established procedures for dealing with extraordinary health risks, such as pandemics, and factories and offices have local response plans.

John Deere continues to establish global occupational health programs matched to health issues and infrastructures in various countries.

The result of its long attention to safety and health is that John Deere is regularly cited as a leader in workplace safety and health. The company's Cylinder Division in Moline, Illinois, for example, has operated for more than 14 years without a lost-time injury. See our safety performance results. Among safety awards presented to John Deere units in 2009 were 44 from the U.S. National Safety Council, bringing to more than 1,000 the number of awards the company has received since the NSC started its recognition program.

Continuous Safety Improvement

Continuous Improvement (CI) teams at John Deere factories around the world constantly look for and document ways to improve safety, quality, delivery and efficiency. Then operators, technicians and engineers undertake projects to improve those things. The teams complete hundreds of safety projects every year, and the results are shared throughout the company using an on-line tool and at gatherings called CI X-Changes.

In one project last year, operators at John Deere’s Phoenix International factory in Torreon, Mexico, eliminated a potential safety hazard on a small press used during assembly of electric circuit boards. By studying and then reprogramming the machine’s sequence controls, they were able to adjust when its protective guards close, making it impossible for an operator’s hands to be in the machine while it is working.

One reason John Deere employees are so safe on the job is the company’s ongoing attention to ergonomics, the design of work and workstations to reduce injuries and disorders caused by overuse of muscles, bad posture, and repetitive tasks.

John Deere ergonomics specialists show off some of their best workplace improvements every year in a contest. Factories compete in the contest, but also share creative solutions to real problems.

At the 2009 contest, ergonomics specialists from 18 John Deere units presented success stories, which were rated for innovation, simplicity, cost savings, and risk reduction. The winner was John Deere Des Moines (Iowa) Works, where teams developed a pneumatic device that extends 8 shock absorbers at once to the proper length for installation on John Deere Self-Propelled Sprayers. Previously, employees had to work in awkward positions and exert up to 75 pounds of force to extend the shock absorbers by hand, one at a time, 80 times a day.

Attention to Training

Training employees in safety principles and in their jobs is an important aspect of workplace safety.  At the company’s Tianjin, China, Works, for example, employees who operate forklifts, cranes and other large equipment wear colored arm bands to signify that they have the authority and special training to safely operate the equipment.

To be certified as an equipment operator, employees must first earn the chance to participate in training programs offered by the Chinese government. If they complete the training, a government official presents them with special certifications. Employees are re-certified for operation based on safety regulations for each type of equipment.