Workplace Health and Safety

At Ford, we aim to create a safe workplace with zero fatalities and no serious injuries. We want to demonstrate leadership in safety – not just within manufacturing, but within all industries around the globe. We have made strong and steady progress, with overall injury rates dropping to a tenth of the levels of 1999, when we revamped our formal safety program. But we’re still not where we want to be, and we know we have more work to do.

Our top executives and managers remain committed to ensuring that our people stay safe and healthy while working as part of our One Ford team. We have adjusted management compensation to be more heavily weighted to drive safety culture improvements. Our Board of Directors, for example, reviews our company’s health and safety performance as part of CEO Alan Mulally’s annual assessment.

Safety is integrated into all aspects of our business. Our Safety Operating System (SOS), which is part of our overall manufacturing strategy, provides for the health and safety of our employees through empowered teams of people working together. Safety is one of the core components of the Ford Production System, along with quality, delivery, cost, people, maintenance and environment. A strong safety record is good for our employees and good for our business.

In recent years we have been especially focused on changing the work force culture within our plant operations to ingrain the importance of safety in all of our people, no matter their role. We’re leveraging the One Ford philosophy of working together, caring for each other and creating a supportive environment.

We know that to manage health and safety effectively, we must maintain good relationships with all stakeholders. Globally our unions share our commitment to a safe working environment and have been our partners at every step of the Health and Safety Leadership effort and other health and safety programs. We also maintain important external relationships with regulatory agencies, professional organizations and suppliers. In the U.S., formal partnerships among Ford, the UAW¹, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and its state counterparts are a visible example.

The “health” part of health and safety remains a key driver for Ford. We recognize the impact that health issues such as heart disease, diabetes, smoking and obesity can have on the well-being of our employees, as well as on the cost of providing health care to our work force in the U.S. By helping employees to prevent serious diseases and effectively manage chronic conditions, we can have a positive impact on our employees’ quality of life and our bottom line.

For more about our workplace safety systems, see the corresponding pages on Health and Safety Governance; Safety Culture and Accountability; Safe Conditions; Health as a Strategic Advantage; and Our 2013 Safety Performance.