Nautor's Swan
A safe production environment is an essential part of manufacturing
Oy Nautor Ab is an international company that manufactures Nautor's Swan offshore yachts at its production facilities in Pietarsaari and Pedersöre. Nautor's Swan sailing boats are renowned worldwide for their speed and luxury.
Nautor's Human Resources Manager says that manufacturing plants are challenging environments, where the framework for safe working is paramount. Various chemicals and dust increase the risk of fire, dangerous machinery is used, working positions are unergonomic and staff have to adapt to changing conditions, as Swan sailboats are not produced in line.
-Employees are required to be vigilant and monitor their immediate environment, as conditions are not standardised. One of the things we have tried to focus on is safety awareness, so that staff are also aware of the importance of using protective equipment and appropriate equipment.
Nautor and Protect have been working together since 2006. At that time, Nautor had three people working in the field of occupational health and safety in addition to their own work. When one of them retired and the other moved on to other tasks and no suitable replacements could be found, the company started to explore other options.
-It turns out that we can manage safety issues as a purchased service with Protect. It was an easy solution for us. Even after that, Nautor has had some resources of its own, but it has not been able to match the wide range of safety expertise and resources that we now have at our disposal through Protect in various areas.
Consultative cooperation
According to Nautor's head of personnel, the rescue plan and explosion protection document prepared under Protect's guidance were particularly helpful in the early stages of cooperation. The PRO24 has been in use at Nautor since the beginning and the company has contributed to its development. The PRO24 facilitates documentation and has collected information on, for example, staff training. It also records any accidents and near misses and the resulting corrective actions.
-On a couple of occasions we have organised a fire drill together and they have been very interesting. Organised by Protect, these exercises have effectively illustrated to staff the challenges involved in real-life situations. The amount of acetone used in the manufacture of boats has been halved since five years ago, thanks in part to a study carried out with Protect," he cites examples.
Cooperation between the parties is based on a dialogue and open partnership.
Protect has brought us reliable safety expertise. They anticipate and monitor changes in legislation, for example, and ensure that we have the most up-to-date information available. We can also always ask Protect if we have a question here that we don't know the answer to ourselves.