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ALC rolling out hazard reporting tool

  • Published
  • By Brandice J. O'Brien
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  The Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center Volunteer Protection Program Executive Steering committee is standardizing the hazard reporting system. Although the project is still in the infancy stages, officials said they hope to have the system operational by summer.

Once installed, the user-friendly Web application will allow people with access to the Tinker network to report and monitor hazards and repair statuses that occur on base.

"What we have tried to do is make it easy for them to report hazards and then see the status of those reports," said Ross Marshall, Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center executive director. "We're taking this seriously, we're taking action and we're being aggressive in eliminating the hazards that we have. We want to make our entire environment safer and a better place to work."

Karol Glessner, VPP base program manager, agreed.

"It's a one-stop shop," she said. "Tinker employees have a right to know what hazards are out there and how they're being mitigated, also if there's any long-term project funding and where it's at in that process."

Prior to the standardization of the system, personnel had to report incidents or update statuses with their respective organization. Additionally, had they wanted to research an incident within another organization, they would have followed that organization's procedures. Using the new system, the 76th Commodities Maintenance Group will follow the same procedures as the 72nd Air Base Wing and, should personnel move to a new job within another OC-ALC organization, they won't have to relearn a hazard reporting system.

"This system will allow everyone to see other organization's issues," Ms. Glessner said. "So, if you have similar issues in a different area, you have open Web access to go look and see what they found, how they fixed it and what it cost them, so you're not reinventing the wheel."

Additionally, officials said they think the new hazard reporting system will directly contribute to the reduction of incidents.

"The awareness out here is greater than ever before and it's showing in the rates. They're falling greatly," said Ryan Smith, 76th MXW Safety Office director and 76th Software Maintenance Group/76th Maintenance Wing Staff Offices VPP management representative.

Ms. Glessner agreed.

"Our hazard reporting has almost tripled over the past three years and our incident-injury numbers are going down," she said. "That's an important correlation. I don't think it's a coincidence. Once our system is standardized, I think it'll show continued improvement in our rates and safety in the shops."

The project came about as the result of a rapid improvement event in which 23 people from OC-ALC units, 448th Supply Chain Management Wing and American Federation of Government Employees Local 916 met for three days in March and discussed the issue.