HEBRON, Ohio (July 15, 2013) — The employees who work in Generation’s Projects, Controls & Construction (PC&C) organization are well grounded in the safety rules and procedures associated with the projects that are part of their everyday responsibilities. However, there are some activities performed by specialty contractors where they have less exposure to the hazards.
But that may be changing in the wake of two recent recordable safety events that got the safety team made up of construction and safety coordinators thinking about a novel way to improve job site safety.
“An employee of MPW Industrial Services, a firm that we use to vacuum and pressure-clean our power plant boilers during maintenance, received an injury while working at the Rockport plant during its recent outage,” said Jim Zucal, Director – Construction in the Projects, Controls & Construction organization. “The investigation of that incident suggested that our own construction coordinators might have been able to point out one or more of the contributing factors and possibly prevent the incident if they had been more familiar with MPW’s processes and procedures.”
With that in Mind, Jim Zucal, AEP Director of Construction in the Projects, Controls & Construction Organization, approached MPW’s management and asked if they would be willing to provide a group of AEP employees with some targeted training on their safety procedures. The company’s executives quickly agreed and a training session was arranged for 12 employees who work with MPW at various plants in our eastern footprint. The training was held at MPW’s corporate headquarters in Hebron, Ohio, on June 18.
“They were eager to work with us on this,” said Zucal. “They told us that we are a valuable customer and would like to partner with AEP to improve the safety of the overall work site. As it turned out it was a great way to build a spirit of teamwork and cooperation that will have benefits over the long term.”
“We welcome the opportunity to work with AEP to educate each other on our companies’ safety policies and procedures. As a long-time customer, we know that AEP thoroughly embraces safety in the workplace. This joint training session will prove beneficial for both parties and decrease the likelihood of injury on the job site,” said Monte Black, CEO of MPW Industrial Services.
According to Jennifer Matz, the learning coordinator who helped arrange the session, the training allowed employees to have some hands-on experience handling the high-pressure blasters and vacuuming equipment that MPW uses to perform its work. “They had an opportunity to understand how physical the work is and how much exertion is involved, especially when you’re wearing protective equipment and working in hot, humid conditions.”
Thank you letter from AEP’s Jim Zucal
Monte,
We would like to thank you for hosting AEP for training yesterday. We have received very positive feedback from the participants. This partnership should lead to achieving our shared goal of zero injuries. The participants also gained a better understanding not only of the operational and safety requirements of the work MPW performs, but also the physical demands on your employees performing the work. Your team was extremely professional and knowledgeable.
It is our intention to have the individuals who participated in the training, share this information with those on their projects. I anticipate that this new found knowledge will provide better communication between AEP and MPW on our job sites.
Thank you again!
– Jim Zucal Director – Construction Projects, Construction & Controls