Admitting Shortcomings, Finding Solutions: A Safety Manager’s Lessons in Collaboration

Not every safety story starts with an accident. Sometimes, lessons in collaboration come quietly, in the form of a failed improvement—or realizing that your first assessment wasn’t quite right.

At a manufacturing plant in Northwest Ohio, a safety manager named Aaron set out to make a 60-year-old process safer. The job? Forming heavy, cylindrical metal components using torches, hammers, and chisels—repetitive, physically demanding work that carried obvious risks. The plan seemed straightforward for Aaron. He identified what he thought was a big hazard and decided to replace some of the manual labor with a press to bend the metal, reduce ergonomic strain, and improve efficiency.

But the first attempt didn’t go as planned.

What Happened? Early Lessons in Collaboration

Soon after workers starting using the press via the new process, they uncovered a depth of inefficiencies that Aaron had not originally forecasted.

Feedback from operators revealed that what Aaron had first seen as a high-risk hazard was actually pretty minor and didn’t need changing at all.

After taking another, deeper look at it, he realized that his new, proposed solution:

  • Did nothing to actually reduce hazards and created new, unforeseen hazards
  • Required precise alignment of the press, slowing production of the metal components tremendously, nearly doubling the amount of time it normally took to complete the task
  • Caused significant worker dissatisfaction with the new process and their lack of involvement in its development

“I thought we were making the process safer, but it ended up slowing things down and creating new challenges. My perception of the hazards was off—I focused on ergonomics, but missed the bigger picture.”

Aaron looks back now and says, “I thought we were making the process safer, but it ended up slowing things down and creating new challenges. My perception of the hazards was off—I focused on ergonomics, but missed the bigger picture.”

Lessons Learned

With feedback in mind, Aaron went back to the drawing board to evaluate the entire process. This became one of his first true lessons in collaboration—bringing the right people in from the start—operators from all three shifts, maintenance, engineering, and quality. What they discovered was that the most harmful hazard wasn’t where they had initially focused—it actually occurred during the creation of the components themselves. This process involved handling large, tensioned metal assemblies under extreme force, where mistakes could cause serious injuries.

Armed with this insight, the team redesigned the process from the ground up.

This second approach developed a machine that:

  • Automated critical steps to eliminate human error
  • Integrated safety controls, preventing equipment from operating if components weren’t properly positioned
  • Improved efficiency and product quality

“We learned the first time that collaboration is everything. You can have all the expertise in the world, but if you don’t involve the team who does the work, your solution won’t succeed.”

The result? A process that was safer, more efficient, and better quality—proving that the strongest solutions come from lessons in collaboration, not isolated decision-making. The team applied the same collaborative approach to redesign several more machines, using feedback loops to fine-tune each one.

Aaron recounts this experience as one of the most critical turning points in his safety career, saying, “We learned the first time that collaboration is everything. You can have all the expertise in the world, but if you don’t involve the team who does the work, your solution won’t succeed.”

The Bigger Picture of Safety

What makes this story stand out is Aaron’s willingness to admit that his first approach fell short. In many workplaces, safety professionals are seen as “policing to police”—enforcing rules without questioning whether the rules themselves make sense. Aaron chose a different path. By acknowledging that he made a mistake, he opened the door for collaboration and real progress.

At Cardinal, we partner with teams who share the same values we do—good intentions to do the right thing, a drive to improve, and a commitment to safety. We know you may not have all the answers, and that’s okay—that’s why we call it a partnership. If you need EHS consultation, safety program development, training, OSHA citation defense, or anything in between, contact us to discuss what we can do for you.

Disclaimer: This is a true story. Certain names and details have been changed to preserve anonymity.



from Cardinal Compliance Consultants https://cardinalhs.net/blog/safety-managers-lessons-in-collaboration/
via Cardinal Compliance Consultants

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