KINETIC 9/17/07 8:51 AM Page 56
KINETIC SYSTEMS INC.
“Coordination was key in making the
project a success.”
Known as the Camelview Village, the
development will feature 38,000 square
feet of commercial space and feature 11
buildings and underground parking for
1,400 vehicles. The HVAC contract, val-
ued at close to $15 million, required the
company to tackle the project one level
at a time.
“Kinetics, from top to bottom, is just
an exceptional company,” Lenick asserts.
“They are very well-qualified and organ-
ized and they know their business inside
and out, whether that be plumbing,
56 ■ CONSTRUCTION TODAY ■ OCTOBER 2007
HVAC or metals work. They’re very
straightforward and professional.”
Safety As A Culture
Safety is something that has been built
into the everyday culture of the compa-
ny, Safety Director Charles Montes says.
As more acquisitions took place within
the last 10 years, the company turned a
corner with its safety program, becoming
more focused on integrating its message
and policies companywide.
“Our acquisitions led us to start devel-
oping a stronger safety infrastructure,”
Montes explains. “In the past, nobody
really owned safety – that was really the
biggest problem. If you go back eight
years ago, it was really a paper program
with no substance to it.”
Changing the laissez-faire mentality
started at the top. As management made
safety a value, it created a trickle-down
effect with employees taking ownership.
“What’s important to you will become
important to them,” Montes maintains.
“You get what you focus on.”
At Kinetics, empowering its employees
with a safe work environment also pre-
vents incidents. Providing employees
with the proper tools and equipment to
do the job, allowing them enough time to
complete the task in a safe manner and
empowering them to stop work if they
don’t feel is safe takes precedence on the
job site. “We want to create an environ-
ment where they can stop work if they
are not safe,” Montes says.
Practicing a philosophy Montes refers
to as “beyond zero,” Kinetics has stopped
focusing on numbers altogether with the
new program and instead measures its
incidents on the level of severity. “Our
focus is on leading indicators,” he says.
The company developed a HIF, or hum-
an impact factor, which measures the
severity of an incident. Emphasizing pre-
task safety planning, year-to-date the
company has experienced a 78 percent
reduction in the incidents it experienced
in that time.
“If you focus on zero injuries, that
might be good enough, but we want to
improve quality of life, we don’t just want
to prevent accidents,” Montes notes. “Our
goal is to shoot past accident prevention.”
Montes conducts safety audits at the
various divisions. “I arbitrarily pull
employees aside, introduce myself and
have an anonymous conversation,”
Montes says.
By asking employees key questions
about how safe they feel and by observ-
ing the working conditions, Montes
determines what areas need improve-
ment and where it excels. The division
audits continue by visiting two to three
project sites, which Montes randomly
selects to monitor on-the-job safety per-
formance.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time,
employees say Kinetic’s is the safest com-
pany they have worked for,” he claims. ■