On July 7, 2010, the Kushiro Factory of Summit Agri-Business Corporation, a subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation engaged primarily in the manufacture and sale of fertilizers, received an Incentive Award from the Director of Hokkaido Labor Bureau for its clean industrial safety record of no workplace accidents (entailing four or more lost work days) in the seven years since June 2003. This is the second honor that Kushiro Factory has won for its high level of occupational safety and health, following the July 2009 Best Plant Award it received at the Kushiro-Nemuro Region Industrial Safety and Health Convention. The recent award was more competitive, however, as the number of candidates and the geographical area they were drawn from--namely, the entire prefecture of Hokkaido--were both larger. In this sense, the recent commendation represents a higher recognition of the plant's continuous day-to-day safety activities.

Kushiro Factory holds a safety meeting on a weekly basis, where safety-related issues identified at workplaces are reported and appropriate countermeasures are discussed. The key element of this activity is so-called HHK Reporting, by which workers report any small incidents or near-misses that could have resulted in injuries. Appropriate preventive measures are then taken to ensure these potential dangers do not develop into real problems. Recent examples of reports made under the HHK Reporting program include: "The steel plate is coming off in some spots. It looks dangerous," and "While I was fixing a pallet, I missed a stroke and the hammer slipped out of my hand. I broke into a cold sweat." In response to these particular reports which were made at the safety meeting, countermeasures for each risk were discussed and taken immediately on the same day. With regard to the cases mentioned above, this involved making a quick fix using reinforcing plates and reminding workers of the importance of ensuring safety at the workplace, respectively. These report-and-rapid-response activities are built upon the plant's Three Don'ts initiative, in which employees are encouraged not to "overlook, hesitate to report, or neglect" even small potential dangers. This plant-wide initiative, which is based on good workplace communication established by the plant, has effectively facilitated active reporting by employees.

"There are no magic bullet solutions to ensuring safety at work. We feel humbled by this commendation and will make further efforts focused on safety education and training," said Kazuo Kodaka, manager of the Kushiro Factory. He also enthusiastically unveiled his plan to organize an event in which representatives of different plants will come together to discuss workplace safety education and training. Having set a positive example of how to achieve recognition through hard work, Kushiro Factory will continue its efforts.