Workplace Health and Safety

In 1999, Ford began a Safety Leadership Initiative aimed at making our workplaces safer. In the 12 years since, we have seen dramatic results, with overall injury rates dropping to a tenth of their previous levels. We are competitive within our industry; however, we want to be the best. The practices established in this initiative are now so fully a part of how we run our business that we’ve dropped the term “Initiative” and now simply call it “Health and Safety Leadership.”

The “health” part of health and safety is also an increasing focus for Ford. This is driven by growing recognition of the impact that health issues like heart disease, diabetes and obesity can have on the well-being of our employees, as well as the cost of providing health care to our workforce in the U.S. (See the Economy section for a discussion of health care costs.) 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.

Our top executives and managers remain committed to ensuring that our people remain safe and healthy while working as part of our ONE Ford team. Management compensation has been more heavily weighted to safety results, including serious injury performance.

We recently updated our health and safety management systems with a new Safety Operating System (SOS) that is part of our overall manufacturing strategy, the Ford Production System. Safety is one of the core components of the Ford Production System, along with quality, delivery, cost, morale, maintenance and environment.

Under the SOS, new safety processes identify and assign roles for individuals. Those assigned an “O” are the “owners” of the element; those assigned an “R” are “responsible” for doing the task; and those assigned an “A” are “accountable” for ensuring the task is done.

For more our workplace safety systems, see the corresponding pages on safety governance; accountability; safe conditions; and relationship management.