Cardinal Glass Industries implemented ESS safety management software to replace their inefficient manual safety tracking system. In the first year, they saw a 59% reduction in worker's compensation costs and a 64% drop in employee injuries. The software saved 600 hours per year of duplicate data entry time by allowing data to be entered just once. Managers could now easily access safety metrics and incident histories to facilitate more effective employee performance reviews and increase accountability.

1. 2008 ESS EXCELLENCE AWARD WINNER
Manufacturing Industry
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The Challenge
► Replace the company’s inefficient
manual safety data tracking system.
► Identify safety trends and enable
enterprise-wide access to safety metrics.
The Solution
► Compliance SuiteTM
Safety Management Software
► Compliance SuiteTM
Training Management Software
Also licensed:
Job Hazardous Analysis Software
MSDS Management Software
The Results
► Worker’s compensation costs reduced by
59% after just one year
► Employee injuries dropped 64% percent
in first year.
► Saved 600 hours of data entry per year
by eliminating duplicate data entry
► System allows managers to facilitate
effective performance reviews for
increased accountability.
Cardinal Glass Achieves 64% Drop in Injuries,
59% Reduction in Compensation Costs in One Year
Cardinal Glass Industries is an industry leader in the production of residential glass for windows and doors,
with more than 5,500 employees located at 27 manufacturing locations around the United States. In 2004,
managers of the Cardinal IG facility in Fargo, North Dakota – which manufactures insulated and laminated
glass products – made a commitment to establishing a world-class worker safety program. One of their
primary goals was to enhance their ability to manage critical safety information by eliminating inefficiencies
tied to manual data tracking, improving their ability to assess trends and providing user-friendly access to
incident histories at all levels of plant management.
Jenni Day, Safety Manager for the Fargo-based facility, was introduced to ESS’ Compliance SuiteTM
software
platform at the annual Region 8 conference of the Voluntary Protection Programs Participants’ Association
(VPPPA) and knew immediately that it was the solution her company was seeking. She was immediately
impressed with how easy the software was to use and the fact that it could be readily tailored to meet Cardinal’s
unique requirements.
Cardinal IG purchased ESS’ Safety Management and
Training Management Software solutions.
Prior to implementing the ESS system, Cardinal IG safety
personnel had to manually enter data into as many as 16
different spreadsheets each and every time the company
experienced an incident, depending on its outcome.
Eliminating this inefficient process and gaining the ability to
enter the data one time into one source saved the facility
an estimated 600 labor hours a year.
Cardinal IG’s managers wanted to take advantage of the
software’s ability to provide trending and customized
reports that would assist them in conducting gap analyses
of their safety program so they decided to not only input
new incidents, but also to enter all historical data available
since the plant opened in July, 1998.
“What a difference ESS software has made!” Day said.
“During the first year following the system’s implementation,
workers’ compensation costs decreased by almost 59
percent and injuries dropped by 64 percent.”
Day said that the system’s ability to make incident
information accessible to all levels of management was
essential to the implementation’s success.
“Now all of our managers, supervisors and front-line team
leaders, with varied access privileges, can view department
and individual incident histories as well as training
participation statistics that they then use in employee
performance reviews, “she added. “That has allowed all
levels of management to share in the ownership of the
safety program as well as improve levels of accountability.”