‘Making the safe way the easy way’ may sound a simple principle, but by adopting that approach and developing a safety culture, ABN’s new Director of Health, Safety , Quality and Environment is driving a Target Zero ambition that is leading to continuous improvement and best practice across all elements of the business.
Dave Roberts, has been appointed to a new director level role with both ABN and Premier Nutrition, overseeing quality control across all elements of AB Agri’s UK monogastric businesses, as an extension of the Everyday Excellence programme pioneered by head of Continuous Improvement, Steve McNamara.
Coming from a chemical engineering background, and with a long operational track record working in high-risk environments, Dave understands the important balance between creating a safe and healthy working environment, while also meeting quality standards and productivity targets.
Beginning his career as a graduate trainee chemical engineer with British Sugar, Dave spent the subsequent 20 years gaining experience in various roles within the business including Continuous Improvement (CI) Manager, before spending a little under five years as Head of Supply Chain in Premier Nutrition.
In his eyes, safety and quality go hand-in-hand, and together they should result in enhanced productivity. The Target Zero ambition is based around a movement to make sites safer, from manual handling to the control of vehicles on site, while the same applies to quality, based around robust quality parameters.
“I like to take a ‘Head and Hearts’ approach. The head means we are legally compliant and operating responsibly, but crucially we also need full engagement with our people to create the right culture for behavioural safety,” he adds.
“Target Zero looks at challenging behavioural issues across the entire supply chain, from factory to farm, including addressing ‘loss-time’ injuries and environmental hazards that could impact on the business and the service we provide,” he says.
According to Dave, this is where the mantra ‘make the safe way the easy way’ comes in, and if that can’t be achieved, make the unsafe way the most difficult way.
The Safety Culture programme of Target Zero underpins everything ABN does across the supply chain, and as such provides the security of supply that customers require, based on sound QESH (Quality, Environment, Safety and Health) principles.
“This role for health, safety, quality and environment demonstrates our commitment to QESH, providing a voice as a representative of quality control to the ABN board,” says Dave.
The role dovetails with the CI team, with Everyday Excellence the vehicle driving the quality, safety, health and well-being responsibilities across all areas of the business and supply chain, including relationships with customers.
“These principles are really important to us as a business, not least because it is equally important to our customers, and this is where our partnership approach takes centre stage,” he says.
“It really is from factory to farm, covering the complete loop from inbound and outbound logistics, with raw materials coming in, and feed deliveries going out. This includes our drivers, account managers and nutritionists going out on farm, identifying and advising on hazards, and providing bio-security support,” he adds.
Dave holds a NEBOSH general certificate and oversees a team of three full time health and safety managers, as well as the feed safety and quality team, working to eliminate hazard and risk, while improving standards and cultures across people, sites, and processes.
Having previously held roles that have been focussed on hitting production targets, Dave is enjoying combining that fast-paced environment with a focus on safety and ensuring quality feed is going out to customers.
“Bad safety quality equals bad production, so again those approaches go hand-in-hand. Good operations will encourage safe working environments, good quality feeds and production efficiencies. While it was not a career plan I had envisaged as a graduate trainee, I am very happy to have this opportunity at board-level to make a difference.”