The purpose of a safety and health management system is to provide a framework for managing the prevention of work-related injury and illness.

Corning employs an internal safety and health management system (SHMS) model that incorporates hazard recognition, risk evaluation and control.  The basis of the model is the concept of Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA), which requires leadership, commitment and participation of employees from all levels and functions of the organization.

The model is an iterative process that provides for continual improvement.

An internal assessment process is conducted by the corporate safety management services team to assess how well each site meets requirements defined in the company safety and health management system standards.  A score of 90% or higher indicates that a site has a robust system in place.  It typically takes a site 4 or 5 cycles to develop systems that fully meet Corning’s rigorous requirements.

Currently, almost half of Corning sites meet the 90% or greater threshold and a further third are within 10% of the target.

In addition to meeting Corning’s requirements, approximately one quarter of all global sites have also achieved third party certification to the OHSAS 18001 international occupational health and safety management system specification.