FEATURE
It’s Not How Fast
You Drill...
It’s How Safely You
Drill Fast
During my visits to ADSC meetings and conferences, I religiously attended
all Safety Committee meetings. I also developed a relationship with Rick
Marshall and had many one-on-one conversations with him about Safety
– both philosophical and practical. I am quite certain that Rick was having
conversations like this with many attendees but he had a way of truly connecting with anyone who was ready for a serious discussion about how to
keep drillers safe.
By Andrew Burns, P.E., Drilling Operations Manager, Posillico Drilling
Every conversation ended with me asking Rick if he would be willing to
visit
us at Posillico so I could get this inspired vision of Safety in front of our
When I was brand new to this business, I can remember saying to a more
guys
who are on the battle field every day. Rick would always respond with,
experienced colleague that the only job I was NOT willing to take on was
“You’ll
have to ask Mr. Goettle how he feels about that.” A typically prothat of the site safety manager. Twenty years later, I remarked to my rightfessional
response.
hand, my field general, that we are in the business of keeping our workers
Last
April
when I first received the email that Rick was retiring from Goet(and the public) safe…if we happen to get a foundation built at the same
tle,
I
thought
to myself, “here’s my chance.” Then, the same day, I received
time, that’s a bonus. From a personal perspective, in 20 some odd years in
the
email
that
ADSC was creating a new position: Director of Safety. Guess
the deep foundation industry (all of it working for contractors), I have seen
who
would
be
filling that position?
first hand the changes in attitudes toward the topic of Safety.
I
had
been
wanting
to get our Posillico safety mangers to attend ADSC
That’s right, Safety with a capital ‘S.’
Northeast Chapter functions since I joined Posillico in 2012 but you know
how busy everyone is all of the time these days. Well, now with this new situation, the introduction could not wait. Posillico NYC Safety Manager, Keith
Rapping (also responsible for Drilling Safety) was slotted in for the trip to
the ADSC Northeast Chapter’s May Outing to Fenway Park in Boston. Also
attending that trip would be Dave Sposito, newly promoted Posillico Drilling
Operations Manager.
Over baseball, hot dogs, and a few beers, Dave and Keith were introduced to Rick along with Greg Lewis, ADSC Northeast Chapter Safety Committee Chair as well as Tony Kraut, ADSC Education Committee Chair. Well,
before the seventh inning stretch, there was a plan in motion.
A series of conference calls took place involving Rick, Dave, and Keith
“The Wrench” – Posillico tradesmen, in a room filled with their peers, watched on a
along
with Posillico Corporate Safety Officer Fred Ringler and Senior VP of
large screen as videos of them working played while those in the room discussed
“what’s wrong with this picture?” Here, a Dockbuilder allows a 50-pound wrench to Field Operations (and owner) Joseph Posillico III. This gave Rick a chance to
rotate with the drill string just over his head.
hear from each stakeholder what their vision was of Posillico’s strengths
and
weaknesses when it comes to Safety. Posillico’s guys got to know the
I believe that the new age of Safety we find ourselves in is one where,
Rick
Marshall that I have known for years. They discussed the corporate
during the design and selection of means and methods, Safety needs to be
safety
plan and statistics like incident rate and the number of lost time inon equal footing with engineering concerns such as pile capacity and qualcidents.
They also discussed the types of drilling work Posillico performs,
ity control, with commercial concerns such as dollars per ton of capacity or
the
types
of training Posillico provides. They discussed intricate details like
whether the anticipated production rate will meet the contract schedule
the
grade
of cut-resistant gloves being distributed.
requirements. Knowing what we know today, we must constantly ask ourselves, “is this the safest way to accomplish what we need to accomplish?”
Recently, Posillico decided to reach out to ADSC’s newly appointed Director of Safety Rick Marshall for consultation as part of our effort to get our
minds right and make the push to get to the next level of Safe Production.
Allow me to provide a little background as to how this whole thing came
about. Posillico got into the drilling business approximately ten years ago
and hired ADSC Northeast legend Ralph Capelli and he quickly got Posillico
involved in ADSC. Ralph famously focused on ADSC’s strength when it comes
to Safety – based on the combined experience of the industry. This turned out
to be an important strategic decision. It also came at a time when Posillico
made a important company-wide strategic decision to focus on Safety.
During that time, Posillico’s safety record has improved dramatically
- including a drop in RIR (recordable incident rate) from 1.26 in 2013 to
“No Toe Board” – In this photo, maintenance engineers are handling heavy hose
0.52 in 2015. But still, a few injuries occur each year. And the real lesson is in preparation to fuel the drill rig. They are working on top of a concrete pump
that the safer you get, the harder it is to improve your safety record year house covered with dirt and debris. There is no toe board (right where it is needed
after year. And yet, it is not OK to sit back and say, “we’re doing enough to most) to prevent objects from falling on to the men working below.
keep our workers safe.”
More importantly, they found common ground. They arrived at a point at
In particular, for Posillico, one of the toughest and most persistent areas,
which
many of us in this industry have arrived: how do we get the field
in terms of eliminating incidents, has proven to be hand injuries to tradesmen involved in drilling operations.
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FOUNDATION DRILLING August/September 2016
POSILLICO Contd.
“Pelican Hook a Big No-no” – Within a tightly constrained work area, the men
were found to be using a “pelican hook” with a nylon strap in order to move 18inch diameter threaded casing. This is a classic example of a good tool being used
improperly. As all-too-often happens, there’s no time to stop and get the right tool
but there will be plenty of time to write up incident reports.
guys to not just understand but to believe in their guts that Safety has to
be incorporated into the very way they approach every aspect of their work?
Listening in on one of those calls, I recall Rick invoking a popular TV ad
campaign saying, “it’s not how fast you drill but how safely you drill fast.”
Everyone wants to drill fast. If we don’t drill fast enough, we’re out of business. But, at the same time, we know that if we can’t drill fast safely, we
won’t be around long either. And, we would have to live with knowing we
could’ve prevented pain and suffering.
In preparation for Rick’s visit, David Sposito and Keith Rapping decided
to take a chance. They came up with an idea that, frankly, they weren’t completely sure everyone would receive positively. They decided to take a
Go-Pro video camera to the jobs and video tape the guys at work. The two
of them would then review the videos together and critique them from the
point of view of what we did right-what we did wrong.
Here’s where it could get a bit dicey: the next step would be to gather
as many workers, superintendents, and managers in one place and show the
videos – on a loop – and encourage an open dialogue between foremen
and operators and laborers to critique their colleagues and, more importantly, themselves. If they could just step back and see the things they do,
the decisions they make, from a new vantage point, they would see just
how risky some of the decisions they make can be – much more clearly
than when a safety guy tells them after the fact.
I think what Dave and Keith hit upon is the role that honesty and trust
can play in getting us to the next level. Not known for sugar-coating things,
Posillico General Superintendent Mike Bonora added, “This way that guy
can’t say ‘look how unsafe that idiot in the video is! ‘cuz that idiot is me.”
When the day of Rick’s visit came, it started with a visit to some of Posillico’s drilling projects so Rick could see firsthand what challenges our drillers
face. Many of these challenges are universal to drilling while others are
made significantly more complex by the New York City environment. Material off-loading and handling, for example, within very congested and
complicated MPT (maintenance and protection of traffic) schemes encompasses some of our most dangerous work.
After the morning site visits, Posillico arranged for all key field personnel
and management engaged in drilling operations to attend what Rick refers
to as a “Safety Stand-Up.” Rick describes the scene:
“Around noon, the meeting room began to fill with the attendees. Projects shut down just before lunch time (to accommodate day shift and twilight shift crew attendance), and the field crews and office people arrived
sporadically – mostly due to traffic congestion in the metropolitan area of
New York.
As so often is the case, the employees entered, and tended to gravitate
FOUNDATION DRILLING August/September 2016
to familiar territory. Field guys sat with field guys and office employees sat
together, but at different tables. Things momentarily got a bit “different”
when it was realized that the CEO / President Joseph K. Posillico and the
Senior Vice President Joeseph Posillico III (whose last names are coincidently
the same as the company name) were also in the room.
A visual “us vs. them” environment. Yet in a matter of minutes, the realization of the meeting, the “why are we here,” moment was recognized
by all. No longer was there the sensation that this was a form of punishment
as a result of a negative behavior. On the contrary, the attendees quickly understood that they independently and collectively, could change how their
company operated.
They each realized that they were an important part of the company and
that they each could positively impact how the company operates simply by
doing the ‘right thing’.”
Rick later added that, “Employee empowerment is a powerful tool for
success, and it started with a four-hour Safety Stand-Up!”
Lunch was served and while everyone ate and drank, the ADSC Drilled
Shaft Safety Video was played. Dave Sposito pointed out that, “The ADSC
video lets our guys know they are part of a larger industry and a larger calling within that industry for Safety.” But, he added, “we need to figure out
how to turn that global perspective into local action.”
While preparing for the home movie portion of the event, I often heard
Dave and Keith remark, “The men get sick of listening to the same voices
every day.” The hope was that Rick could lend a new voice, but that the
videos would put Posillico’s name on it. In the end, as Dave put it, “We are
the ones who need to take ownership for our actions.”
The conversation started with foremen and operators explaining their
actions away. Others would offer their perspective. Eventually, someone
would ask if something could’ve been done differently. By the end, the guys
in the video acknowleged doing it differently would have benefitted them
the most in terms of limiting their exposure. After several of these exchanges, the mood of the room lightened up and everyone was quickly
honing in on what we did right and what we did wrong. Honesty and trust
had taken over.
As the event wound down and everyone headed back to their day-to-day
lives, Keith Rapping philosophized that the amount of time it takes to develop worthwhile training, especially in a classroom atmosphere, can at
times be overwhelming. “The question is ‘what can you present to the crews
that they haven’t already seen or heard? How can we keep their attention?
What new methods can we deploy? Can you give them new information,
new methods, some message they will absorb, take away and use?’ These
are all the questions asked as we prepared for our drilling meeting with the
crews.” Keith, then reflected on the afternoon’s activities, saying, “videoing the crews during drilling operations and then letting the crews actually
see themselves invoked some great discussion and productive conflict.”
Later, while I was preparing to write this article, Keith told me that, “In the
weeks following, the crews have pointed out [to him] what they have done
differently since the meeting.” He goes on to add that, “the awareness is
heightened which is a major step in the right direction and we realize in
order to take our program to the next level it’s a truly collaborative effort and
we need to continue to engage experts like Rick and ADSC for guidance.”
Perhaps, Fred Ringler summed it up best when he said, “Rick Marshall,
with a long career in drilling in the field and as a Safety Director was able
to reach our drillers on [their] level – he speaks their language and [that’s
what makes him] an incredible resource.”
Maybe, just maybe, we are beginning to realize that “It’s not how fast
you drill…it’s how safely you drill fast.”
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