National Safety Month: Kuraray America's VECTRAN Site Reinforces Safety Excellence with KuraSafe

Karen Brown, Senior Health, Safety, Environment & Security Specialist at Kuraray America, Inc.'s VECTRAN site in Fort Mill, SC, believes that a strong safety culture is built through everyday conversations, employee involvement, and a shared commitment to continuous improvement.

As part of #NationalSafetyMonth, Karen shares how VECTRAN is strengthening its safety culture through KuraSafe and turning these principles into daily practices that keep safety visible, collaborative, and proactive.

At VECTRAN, this focus on everyday safety is reflected in a safety record the team continues to build on. Since 2005, the site has continued to uphold Kuraray’s “5 Zeros” performance targets, a corporate benchmark that supports safety culture goals across Kuraray sites. VECTRAN is proud to have received the Kuraray Group President Award of Safety in previous years.

An example of the site management’s proactive approach to safety is the installation of protective guarding on winding machines. Building on a best practice from a sister facility, this capital investment helps reduce exposure to machinery hazards while reinforcing the site's commitment to continuously improving workplace safety.

With KuraSafe and the First Impression Analysis (FIA), VECTRAN identified existing strengths in its safety culture and areas to continue building on such as:
✅A strong safety-first mindset where employees prioritize safety over production
✅Deep pride in work and outcomes, with quality viewed as a core value and source of team pride
✅A foundation built for continued improvement, with employees saying the site is open to evolution

Opportunity: Continuing to strengthen safety communications and relevant tools that help keep safety visible and actionable

That work is continuing through several site-level actions and routines that are helping keep safety visible and part of everyday operations,
• A technician-led Safety Culture Improvement Team (SCIT) that brings employees closest to the work into the process of identifying site-specific safety culture improvements.
• Site safety communications upgrades such as installing digital bulletin boards, helping keep important updates, expectations and reminders visible to all
• Safety training, production morning talks, and monthly housekeeping inspections are creating regular opportunities for employees to participate, ask questions and discuss concerns

As KuraSafe continues to evolve, VECTRAN will keep building on the practices that help employees feel confident raising questions, sharing suggestions and bringing forward safety concerns.

Because when safety is top of the list, the results speak for themselves.