A forest products company with 3,400 employees and over 80 years of manufacturing high-quality, sustainably harvested wood-based products all over North America, has been partnering with HexArmor® since 2015.
In 2022, they found that the HexArmor Shield® program helped contribute to a 97% reduction in their DART rating.
A partnership that works together
In 2015, this company had worker’s compensation claims that were costing them millions of dollars per year, which is when HexArmor® was called in to help.
As the relationship grew, HexArmor® identified high-risk areas for hand protection, as well as arm and body protection for production crews and maintenance/millwrights, which led to a decrease in recordable injuries and improvements in Wearability® of PPE and total cost of ownership (SKU consolidation, the longevity of PPE, efficient trialing process, etc.).
Wearability® is HexArmor’s promise of offering PPE with the perfect balance of comfort, fit, performance, and style.
Over the years, other HexArmor® PPE categories started being worn nationwide across this company’s worksites, including several safety eyewear models and Ceros® safety helmets. Additionally, HexArmor® became the only manufacturer mandated by name across all sites.
Overall impact results In a 2023 conversation with the Corporate Safety Director, they relayed that the combined impact of improved controls in machine guarding/automation, behavioral change and training, administrative improvements using software as a service, and HexArmor’s best-in-class PPE had resulted in drastic changes:
Before HexArmor® in 2015: Millions of dollars in workers’ comp claims with a DART rate of over 20
After HexArmor® in 2022: 97% reduction in workers’ comp claim costs with a dropped DART rate of less than 1
DART stands for Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred. This calculation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rates the safety of your business in a calendar year by looking at how many workplace injuries and illnesses have resulted in employees missing work, required restricted work activities, or resulted in them being transferred to another job.
Proven safety solution: Bandit® 5043
Due to specific hazards in the plywood and veneer facilities, HexArmor® developed the Bandit® 5043 heavy-duty safety glove alongside workers in the field as a custom-tailored pulling glove.
The 5043 offers the comfort and grip of a traditional, premium split cow leather glove but with incredibly high degrees of protection on the inside, making it one of the safest lumber and plywood gloves on the market.
"We worked with a number of other glove manufacturers to solve our problems of splinters from the dry veneer tearing through leather and Kevlar®. Nothing worked – until we started using the Bandit® glove. We’ve had numerous incidents since mandating HexArmor® that in the past would have needed medical attention, but thanks to HexArmor®, our employees went home whole." - Safety manager
Learn more about the HexArmor Shield® program
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