GlobalFoundries
Semiconductor manufacturer
Santa Clara, CA
16,000 employees | 5 sites | 36 EHS professionals US, 27 Asia/Europe, 29 ERT
GlobalFoundries, a semiconductor manufacturer, believes that in order to protect its employees, visitors and communities, they must work toward an ultimate goal of zero incidents. Their structured program—called GF Journey to Zero—is based on the principles of behavior-based safety and a hierarchy of risk-mitigation controls.
“The GF Journey to Zero emphasizes that no injury is inevitable and together we can create a culture where zero injuries and incidents is the norm,” says Reed Content, director of global EHS.
At each fab site, health and safety professionals engage with operational personnel to analyze potential process hazards and mitigate them according to the following Hierarchy of Controls:
• Elimination (such as eliminating the use of a material).
• Substitution (replacing a hazardous process or material with a less hazardous one).
• Engineering controls (including ventilation, equipment interlocks, enclosure, segregation).
• Administrative procedures (developing procedures, implementing training).
• Personal protective equipment (to manage any residual risks after all other controls have been implemented).
The company’s approach to safety is not a top-down one. Employees actively participate on safety committees and emergency response teams. For example, employees were closely involved in creating protocols in the factory to deal with the pandemic.
There are also several employee events that are conducted throughout the year. They include a Superbowl Safety Challenge, Final Four Safety Challenge, Winter Weather Challenge, and Safest Month activities.
Measuring the success rate of these safety programs, the company uses a structure of Centers of Excellence. The one that focuses on safety uses the following leading indicators:
• First aid cases by injury type and root cause.
• EHS lead inspections (area audits, fab, subfab, café, etc.).
• Inspection findings by location of where finding occurred.
• Near-misses reported by employees.
• Near-miss category types.
• Employee training hours.
• Employee training (# of people attended).
• Employee engagement activities.
All of these efforts, and many more across the company, serve to create an environment of active employee involvement and engagement. “They improve employee EHS awareness, conformance to EHS program and procedures, and improve regulatory compliance,” says Content.