America's Safest Companies: Dresser-Rand

At Dresser-Rand, management is committed to safe production and a focus on leading indicators is leading the charge toward safe production. 

Being recognized as one of America's Safest Companies "demonstrates that Dresser-Rand's HSE Management System executes under an operational excellence philosophy recognizing that HSE requires the same process and people discipline that is required in quality, productivity, cycle time and cost reduction," says Peter Salvatore,
VP and chief safety officer at the Houston-based heavy-equipment manufacturer.

Annual performance objectives are established for managers at Dresser-Rand and include specific safety goals that they are expected to achieve within their respective organizations. Managers are measured in the following areas:

   • Facility audits, which include employee interviews and safety improvement evaluations.

   • Safety meeting attendance and participation.

   • EHS training.

   • Incident reviews.

Employees are encouraged to participate on safety committees and emergency response teams; perform behavior-based and process safety audits; take action to stop work if safety is an issue; and develop job safety and environmental analyses and hazard identification and risk assessment documents, among other things.

"Safety is a condition of employment and employees are fully integrated into the safety process within Dresser-Rand," says Salvatore. "It plays a major role in manufacturing operations, the service center and the field. The most important goal is to return every employee home safely every day. In the words of Dresser-Rand President and CEO Vincent Volpe Jr., ‘It's all about the people.'"

Being recognized for safety performance "provides Dresser-Rand with a competitive advantage in our industry advocating that we have HSE established as a core value integrated within our business and confirming our commitment to operational excellence," Salvatore added.

Safety is the catalyst for driving operational excellence in all functions of Dresser-Rand's business, he says. "We recognize that our HSE performance is only limited by our overall culture of discipline (attention to detail), recognizing that if it is truly a cultural value, its functional application is not selective."