A Case Study of Industrial Injury Reduction: New Zealand Aluminium Smelters Limited

Research aim: To assess the safety performance of New Zealand Aluminium SmeltersLimited (NZAS), 1971-2011. Research objectives sought 1) to quantify the NZAS safety improvement, and 2) to describe interventions used to achieve that improvement. Method: NZAS quantitative data was interrogated for statistical significance. Qualitative data was gathered from NZAS staff (N=23) to substantiate the decrease in lost-time injuries (LTI) and to identify the interventions used. Results: The LTI decrease was significant. Key interventions identified were automation, personal protective equipment, incident investigation resulting in workplace alterations, and proprietary behavioural programmes. The interventions were consistent with hierarchy of controls methodology. An ergonomic focus was the most prominent moderating effect on the success of the interventions. This was demonstrated by plotting interventions on a hazard intervention effectiveness matrix. Summary: NZAS achieved a significant decrease in LTI’s primarily through ergonomically-focused interventions, representing a successful manifestation of thehierarchy of controls methodology