Safety is a Competitive Advantage: Railway Age CEO Perspectives on Safety

Greenbrier CEO and President Lorie Tekorius.

Safety is preeminent among Greenbrier’s core values and extends to every part of our organization. As Greenbrier’s CEO, employee safety is my highest priority. While this seems foundational, it is essential to keep safety at the top of our organization’s mind, no matter how strong our safety programs become. We show this commitment by implementing policies and standards to foster a company culture that prioritizes the safety and well-being of each of our employees.

Our track record of consistent improvement demonstrates Greenbrier’s dedication to safety. Over the past ten years, Greenbrier’s employee headcount has increased by 95%, while our Total Injury Rate (TIR) and Days Away, Restricted or Transferred (DART) incidents have decreased by 79% and 80%, respectively. 

In addition, we strive to develop new and innovative ways to reduce incidents by proactively addressing unsafe behaviors and strive to prevent injuries before they happen. We continue to track additional leading indicators to measure improvement in our safety culture and develop a more robust safety program. 

Over time, our safety goals have become increasingly focused. Early in our program, we implemented introductory safety lessons to shift priorities and recognize safety as a core value. As our programs strengthened, we began to focus on more specific high-risk activities and create specialized plans and programs to address them. 

In 2022, we introduced a new safety initiative: the Dynamic Hand Safety Program. Injuries to the hands are the most common in our work, comprising more than half of all total recordable injuries at Greenbrier in fiscal year 2023. Dynamic Hand Safety represents a systematic approach to raising situational awareness around the hand safety risks that have caused injury in the past, or could have the potential to cause harm to an employee’s hands, wrists, or fingers. 

The program focuses on the movement and arrangement of materials and positioning that often result in hand injuries. Risks of hand injuries can go unnoticed and occur when an employee is in motion. Addressing this issue for Greenbrier meant evaluating our production process to increase situational awareness and identify transition stages during workstreams that threaten hand safety. Once risks are identified, each employee is trained to verbally identify each risk associated with their workstation as they point to the risk with their flashlight. Over time, this program aims to reduce hand injuries when metal objects come together unintentionally during routine situations typically perceived as safe.

One of the achievements I’m most proud of is that Greenbrier’s employees feel a true sense of ownership regarding safety. We have so thoroughly ingrained safety into our culture that when employees recognize safety risks on the job, they feel empowered to address them with colleagues and supervisors before they become incidents. Open communication and collaboration are key components of our Better Together strategy, which we unveiled in 2023. A positive safety culture enhances employee morale and creates a sense of ownership and accountability among employees, resulting in a more harmonious and productive work environment. 

Safety isn’t just beneficial for employees; it’s beneficial for Greenbrier. When they know their safety is our priority, employees are more likely to follow standardized procedures and protocols, leading to consistent and high-quality work. We optimize our production processes and meet customer demands more effectively by minimizing errors, rework, and downtime caused by accidents or injuries. This improves Greenbrier’s reputation for delivering reliable products and enhances our competitive advantage in the market. 

Fostering a culture of safety is never finished. We regularly challenge ourselves on how we can improve the safety conditions across Greenbrier. We also lean on our facilities to exchange best practices, as well as external developments like artificial intelligence. 

As CEO, I aim for employees to work safely and return home to their families in the same condition they arrived that morning, albeit a little more tired. By demonstrating a commitment to safety, Greenbrier creates a satisfactory work environment, minimizes accidents and injuries, improves operational efficiency and enriches company culture.