Safety as a Priority. How EVAL Lives KuraSafe
Saying safety is the cornerstone of an operation and living it day to day are two different things.
At Kuraray America, Inc. (KAI), safety is the priority, and National Safety Month is a chance to show how that priority comes to life across our sites through daily decisions, shared accountability, and continuous improvement.
At the EVAL site in Pasadena, Texas, that work is guided by KuraSafe and strengthened by the people who carry it forward every day. A recent conversation with Kimberly Scales-Williams,BS-Occupational Safety Health,GSP, Health, Safety, Environment and Security (HSES) Specialist, and Tyler Free, HSES Coordinator, made one thing clear.
| Safety at EVAL is built on transparency, trust, and follow-through.
KuraSafe, the Framework
KuraSafe, originally adapted from a safety culture program implemented by Kuraray Europe GmbH, is structured to give every site at KAI a thoughtful, “designed by us, for us” path to strengthening safety culture.
The journey starts with the First Impression Analysis (FIA), a baseline view of how safety is operating at the site and continues through the Safety Culture Improvement Team (SCIT) process, where local teams identify what matters most and take actions that fit their employees, operations, and environment.
At EVAL, KuraSafe serves as the umbrella over each layer of the site’s safety work.
It connects how people communicate, how the site self-assesses, the programs that keep safety visible every day, and the digital controls that gate the highest-risk activities. Transparency, incentives, and care for one another have always been part of EVAL’s culture.
| Kimberly describes the shift this way, “KuraSafe gave us a name for everything we were already doing well, and a way to keep building on it.”
A Culture Grounded in Transparency
Ask anyone at EVAL to describe the safety culture, and the word “village” quickly comes up. Everyone has a role, from frontline operators to maintenance crews to the contractors working alongside them, and the team operates as one, towards a common goal.
| For Kimberly, transparency is the through line. “Transparency is the foundation here. No repercussions for reporting, follow-up on every concern, and a commitment to making sure every voice is heard. That is how we address hazards before they become incidents and how we keep building trust.”
That follow-through is what makes everything else possible. Concerns and observations are treated as opportunities for improvement rather than problems, and anonymous reporting is always an option. When employees see action taken on what they raise, the next report comes faster, the next conversation goes deeper, and the culture keeps growing.
EVAL’s SCIT emerged directly from the site’s FIA and focused on engaging more frontline employees in the safety conversation. What is distinctive about SCIT is who sits at the table. Monthly SCIT workshops are built around frontline voices rather than managers or HSES staff, giving the people closest to the work a chance to speak openly.
The team is intentionally focused on integrating operations, maintenance, and the various crafts so that everyone, regardless of role, works and communicates as one. From those conversations, EVAL partnered with a consultant on a safety leadership course now embedded in KAI University (KAIU), the company’s internal training platform, and delivered through an instructor-led class for every new hire.
The message Kimberly returns to is "everyone is a leader, regardless of title."
Programs Designed by the Team
KuraSafe also houses the on-the-ground programs that keep safety visible every day at EVAL. The site’s behavior-based safety program, W.H.A.T. (Well-being of Everyone, Helping Others, Achieve Goals, Teamwork), has been a fixture since 2016, when it launched as E-Tracker.
In 2020, employees from every department submitted ideas for a new identity, and the winning acronym was chosen by sitewide vote, giving the program stronger employee ownership and a name that reinforces teamwork, accountability, and care for one another.
Today, W.H.A.T. lives on,
- Hard hat stickers and banners,
- An open audit program for anyone to submit observations,
- A Power BI dashboard that surfaces positive recognitions, top five at-risk trends like tripping hazards or personal protective equipment (PPE) compliance, and the focus areas the site is working on next.
Trends are reviewed sitewide every month, so people can see how their reports turn into focused action.
The “Why I Work Safely” campaign uses QR codes in common areas, inviting employees to share what drives them. Submissions show up on digital signage, badge inserts, and break room displays.
| The most common answer within this campaign: “I work safe so I can return home to my family.”
The campaign reinforces a simple idea. Safety is not just a rule. It is a shared value that connects employees, contractors, leaders, and frontline workers.
Stop-work authority gets the same visibility. Team members who pause a job are thanked personally and recognized in front of their peers.
Training is a key component of this effort. Through a three-year partnership with San Jacinto College, we have enhanced traditional computer-based training with engaging, site-specific learning focused on hazard identification and process technology development, better aligning training with the needs of our highly technical workforce.
Where Culture Meets Control
| Strong culture shapes behavior. Strong systems keep it consistent.
At EVAL, that system is ePAS, the Electronic Permit Administration System. The site piloted and has been using for nearly five years. The site’s experience has become a valuable reference point in KAI’s digital transformation journey, as other Houston-area sites now use ePAS to strengthen safety processes and drive more consistent work practices.
ePAS replaced paper permits across permit to work, hot work, confined space entry, line breaking, excavation, electrical work, and general safe work. Every job runs through hazard identification and risk assessment before approval. Supervisors see active permits, adjacent work, and potential simultaneous operations (SIMOPS) conflicts in real time, and the platform integrates with SAP, so operations and maintenance stay in sync.
The ePAS Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) module brings the same digital rigor to the isolation of hazardous energy, with piping and instrumentation diagram (P&ID) integration, digital tag generation, lock box tracking, and barcode verification in the field. Permits and LOTO are linked, so work cannot proceed unless every required energy isolation is verified and active.
Tyler Free now leads ePAS at EVAL, running continuous training and building peer committees so every shift has a trusted resource on the floor. Operators across every experience level move through the system with confidence.
Looking Ahead
Looking ahead, EVAL is focused on engaging frontline employees across operations and maintenance, where turnaround work moves at a faster pace, and extending the same open atmosphere into every corner of the site.
The team is also building stronger top-down and bottom-up communication, expanding its digital tools, and reinforcing accountability at every level. With employees bringing experience from many backgrounds, the site keeps growing a shared safety language that meets everyone where they are. Looking out for one another is what holds it all together.
| For Tyler, the standard is direct. “We will not do anything unsafe. That is the bottom line. Every action, every decision, every plan is built with safety in mind. The moment a plan changes, we stop, reassess, and confirm the new path is just as safe as the first.”
At EVAL, this is what safety as a priority looks like in action because at Kuraray America, safety is the cornerstone of everything we do.