Lippert Components Canada named 2016 regional winner of CNESST safety award
Elkhart, Ind. — Lippert Components Canada, Inc., the Quebec-based subsidiary of Lippert Components, Inc. (LCI®), was recently named the 2016 regional winner of CNESST’s Workplace Safety Innovation award. Under the category of large corporation in the Yamaska region of Canada, Lippert Components Canada was recognized for their development and implementation of innovative safety protocols for the management of raw materials such as large panes of glass.
As a facility that primarily manufactures windows for school buses and recreational vehicles, LCI’s Canadian facility, also known as Plant 73, regularly handles and processes large sheets of glass. After identifying the need to modify the glass dropping process, which involved placing racks of glass sheet into place with a forklift and then dropping the individual sheets of glass onto a CNC cutting table by hand, Plant 73 reorganized and reengineered the process to drastically decrease the risk associated with manually dropping the glass. Employee exposure to forklift traffic was greatly reduced by eliminating the use of a forklift and replacing it with a bridge crane utilizing a tong style lifting mechanism to safely move the racks of large glass sheets. To reduce the potential of glass breakage and shard projections, an automated pneumatic system was engineered, developed and implemented. In addition, the team built and installed guarding around the glass dropping process to protect employees from the glass shard projections in the rare event of a pane breakage.
Akin to the United States’ Occupational Health and Safety Administration, CNESST, an acronym for Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail, is the Canadian organization responsible for regulating and promoting the rights and obligations of the workplace within the province of Quebec.
“We are very excited to have earned this award. Workplace safety and the well-being of our employees is always a top-of-mind priority. To have our process improvements recognized by CNESST is an honor, and we are very proud of this achievement,” commented Malcom Lapointe, LCI’s General Manager of Plant 73.
About LCI Industries ®
From over 90 manufacturing and distribution facilities located throughout North America and Europe, LCI Industries, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, LCI, supplies, domestically and internationally, a broad array of highly engineered components for the leading OEMs in the recreation and transportation product markets, consisting primarily of recreational vehicles and adjacent industries, including buses; trailers used to haul boats, livestock, equipment, and other cargo; trucks; boats; trains; manufactured homes; and modular housing. The Company also supplies engineered components to the related aftermarkets of these industries primarily by selling to retail dealers, wholesale distributors, and service centers. LCI's products include steel chassis and related components; axles and suspension solutions; slide-out mechanisms and solutions; thermoformed bath, kitchen, and other products; vinyl, aluminum, and frameless windows; manual, electric, and hydraulic stabilizer and leveling systems; entry, luggage, patio, and ramp doors; furniture and mattresses; electric and manual entry steps; awnings and awning accessories; towing products; truck accessories; electronic components; and other accessories. Additional information about LCI and its products can be found at LCI1.com.
Lippert Components, Inc.
3501 County Road 6 East
Elkhart, IN 46514
Email: marcom@lci1.com