Ashland Performance Materials' Oak Creek Plant Celebrates Milestone Safety Record

OAK CREEK, WI. – The Ashland Performance Material plant here recently celebrated a safety milestone record, achieving three years of continuous operation – or 118,000 hours of production – without a recordable injury.

A work-related “recordable” can range from an insect bite requiring medical treatment beyond first aid to an incident resulting in serious injury or even death while on company property or doing company business.

The site celebrated by asking some key customers to join them for a Milwaukee Brewers game.

“We wanted to celebrate everyone’s hard work and commitment to safety," said Bob Amend, plant manager.  "We were also able to showcase our plant for some customers and emphasize the plant’s product flexibility, high quality, and consistency. It was a true win-win for Ashland.”

The site manufactures customized specialty UV/EB curable and water-based coatings and adhesives, as part of the company’s Performance Materials division. Ashland Performance Materials is the global leader in unsaturated polyester resins and vinyl ester resins. In addition, it provides customers with leading technologies in gelcoats, pressure-sensitive and structural adhesives, coatings and elastomers.

Serving the division’s packaging, label, printing, and industrial customers presents some safety challenges, including using more than 400 different chemicals in a fast-turn operation with limited automation. The plant has a relatively small team of 20, but proactively addresses safety concerns with new material handling equipment to improve ergonomics and adding new gates to improve platform safety.

“It's amazing what our team can accomplish when everyone is pulling the rope in the same direction,” said Amend. “Small ‘touches’ every day make the biggest difference.”

In more than 100 countries, the people of Ashland Inc. (NYSE: ASH) provide the specialty chemicals, technologies and insights to help customers create new and improved products for today and sustainable solutions for tomorrow. Our chemistry is at work every day in a wide variety of markets and applications, including architectural coatings, automotive, construction, energy, food and beverage, personal care, pharmaceutical, tissue and towel, and water treatment. Visit ashland.com to see the innovations we offer through our four commercial units – Ashland Specialty Ingredients, Ashland Water Technologies, Ashland Performance Materials and Ashland Consumer Markets.