Kennametal Honors Excellence in Environmental Health and Safety
11/12/2008 - Kennametal presents its seventh annual Environmental Health and Safety Excellence Awards to six Kennametal teams worldwide.
Kennametal Inc. has presented its seventh annual Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) Excellence Awards to six Kennametal teams worldwide. The awards, which recognize excellence in promoting progressive environmental, health and safety initiatives, are part of Kennametal's Protecting Our Planet initiative, which targets an accelerated focus on the environment and conservation.
"We are committed to achieving excellence in Environment, Health and Safety throughout all aspects of our business," commented Kennametal Chairman, President and CEO, Carlos Cardoso. "We are dedicated to helping safeguard the health and safety of our employees and the environments in which they operate. Therefore, we are excited to recognize the teams that showcase excellence and commitment to EHS and Protecting Our Planet.”
This year's winners, detailed below, include Kennametal teams in Lyndonville, Vt.; Latrobe, Pa.; Orwell, Ohio; Victoria, Canada; Henderson, N.C.; Chilhowie, Va.; and Rockford, Ill. They were chosen by a set of six external judges representing various environmental, health and safety institutions. Nominees were judged according to their demonstration of leadership, innovation, facility collaboration, employee benefit, measurable cost and risk reduction and improvement in business operations and quality.
Kennametal’s Presidential Award for Health and Safety was awarded to the company’s Lyndonville, Vt., facility, which empowered a cross-functional team to identify high risk ergonomic issues and develop engineering and work practice solutions that reduced lost time employee injuries.
The company’s Presidential Award for Environmental was awarded to company facilities in Latrobe, Pa., and Orwell, Ohio. Using Kennametal's product development process, ACE (Achieving a Competitive Edge), the Latrobe and Orwell locations were able to reduce waste and chemicals necessary for production at Orwell, Ohio; Tianjin, China, and Milan, Italy, facilities.
The company’s Health and Safety Excellence Award was awarded to Kennametal's Victoria, Canada, location, where a team of employees was assembled to develop an air containment system for the powder pressing deck.
A second Health and Safety Excellence Award was granted to the company’s Henderson, N.C., facility, which empowered its workforce to solve operational challenges by instituting an Idea Tracker program for all employees with more than 55% of the ideas having an impact on EHS.
An Environmental Excellence Award was awarded to the company’s Chilhowie, Va., location, which maximized recycling of carbide, steel and braze material through a remanufactured roofbit program, resulting in significant cost savings.
An additional Environmental Excellence Award was granted to Kennametal’s Rockford, Ill., facility for helping develop faster machine cycles resulting in $315,000 in annual savings for the customer. The development also allows for a reusable carbide shank that minimizes waste and saves $45,000 in carbide purchases per year.
Kennametal Inc. is a leading global supplier of tooling, engineered components and advanced materials consumed in production processes. The company improves customers' competitiveness by providing superior economic returns through the delivery of application knowledge and advanced technology to master the toughest of materials application demands. Customers buy approximately $2.7 billion annually of Kennametal products and services—delivered by 14,000 employees in over 60 countries—with more than 50% of these revenues coming from outside the United States.
