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Running a warehouse or manufacturing facility isn’t easy.
Every day, you’re expected to keep product moving in, around, and out the door. Faster. Safer. With fewer problems and zero incidents.
That’s a lot to carry. It can feel like an impossible ask, but we’re here to help make it possible.
On this show, we dig into the real challenges happening on the floor and at the loading dock. Each episode, you’ll hear from industry experts, operators, and problem-solvers who share practical ways to improve quality, boost productivity, and keep facilities running smoothly.
Our goal is simple. Share new ways to tackle challenges that never seem to end so your people and your product get in, around, and out the door safely. You ready to clock in?
Ryan Werner (00:00):
We've literally had customers saying, "I'm going against three sister facilities and I want to win. Let's do this thing." And we're like, "Heck yeah, let's go for it.
Mike Smith (00:11):
"Clocking In, the podcast for people who keep products moving in and out of industrial facilities every day. I'm your host, Mike Smith, director of product at Robert Dietrich Company. Welcome to the Clocking In Podcast brought to you by the Robert Dietrich Company. I'm your host, Mike Smith. Our guest today is Ryan Werner. So good to have you. Good to be here, Mike. Ryan, you are our first ever industrial safety consultant. Happy to have you here today speaking on this topic and so glad you're on our team here at RDC.
Ryan Werner (00:46):
Happy to be here and proud to be a part of the RDC team.
Mike Smith (00:49):
So Ryan, today's episode is all about safety. Specifically what we want to talk about though is why our listeners should consider an outside safety consultation or audit and welcome in someone from the outside to take a look at their facility. Perhaps people have never thought about it. We want to challenge people and encourage people to think about it and consider it. Maybe there's some listeners here who have done that before and they didn't have the best experience and we want to help people reframe it and maybe give it another go. So that's our goal today. I think there are a lot of podcasts out there like clocking in that are talking about industry and facility management and ways to be more productive and more efficient. And I listen to a lot of those episodes. It's rare though for someone to talk about how safety comes alongside and actually boosts productivity.
(01:43):
And I want to get into that a little bit today as well. So we're going to do what we normally do just like if we were working a shift in a facility, we're going to have a team huddle to start things off. We are going to get into the issue a little bit and then we're going to go out onto the floor later on so to speak and get more granular with this topic. And then lastly, you and I are going to clock out. Listeners are going to clock in and we're going to give them some practical advice to take back with them Monday morning. Sound good?
Ryan Werner (02:11):
Let's roll.
Mike Smith (02:12):
All right. So Ryan, to get things started, you've got a very interesting history that I want to get listeners acquainted with in just a few moments, but first I want to ask you a couple questions. First off, what do people believe about the relationship between productivity and safety?
Ryan Werner (02:33):
So generally the thinking from somebody looking at it as productivity's going to take away from the safety and the safety's going to take away from the productivity.
Mike Smith (02:42):
Yeah, common misconception, right? Not really a fair assessment, but we get it. We understand why. But when you were in roles in a facility, roles managing HSE, taking care of safety, did you ever experience that at any point where people are like, "Ooh, if I'm safe, I can't be productive. If I'm productive, I can't be safe." Did you experience that at all?
Ryan Werner (03:05):
Countless examples of that when you're dealing with production. One that comes to mind is an operator working a knife sharpening machine, clearing a jam and almost amputating a finger because of doing that when taking a minute to do the proper lockout tagout procedure to use a tool, to do all the other things that take you away from that risk. That's a great example of doing something safe, saving your finger. Can you do it quicker without doing that? Absolutely, but you have all those hazards.
Mike Smith (03:34):
So I want to use an analogy here. I'm going to ask you some questions that natives to the Indianapolis area will hopefully resonate with. I hope this analogy works. Ryan, what's the point of a race car?
Ryan Werner (03:46):
Go fast.
Mike Smith (03:47):
To go fast, baby. Ricky Bobby style. Why then do we put brakes and extinguisher systems, guardrails on the tracks? Why have those types of things in and around a race car if the point is to go fast?
Ryan Werner (04:02):
Well, the point's to go fast, but you don't get anything if you don't finish the lap and all those little things are going to ensure that you do finish that lap.
Mike Smith (04:09):
And the argument can be made that they actually help you go faster. You're going to be more inclined to put the pedal to the metal if you know the brakes work. And it's the same way with the relationship between productivity and safety. A few weeks ago, we actually talked about this with Lisa Collis and she cited an example in their facility where they were having accidents with forklifts and they were tasked with figuring out how to be safer, hit less, have less near misses, collisions around blind corners and so on and so forth. And they decided to slow down their trucks and everybody wigged out. They were like, "Oh my gosh, we're not going to be as productive. We're not going to load trailers as quick, but we're going to have a backlog. Drivers are going to be waiting. It's going to be this big chain reaction that we don't want.
(04:54):
" But they decided to be safe and slow down trucks anyway. And if you remember, what actually happened was they became more productive. Here's how. Slowing down was a little bit annoying. They didn't like it. And it forced people to innovate and do what people do and think of ways to get that time back. And they found that time by incorporating trucks that could carry double pallets. They found time by rearranging the floor plan in the facility to allow them to get from point A to point B quicker and safer. They innovated. And safety and productivity worked hand in hand. They actually worked at the same speed or faster and they became safer. So it can happen. But I think oftentimes people view people like you and me, safety people, so to speak, kind of like Michael Scott and Toby from the office. If you watch that show, that's a great analogy because Michael Scott despises Toby.
(05:53):
Anytime Toby walks into a room, there's great disdain. It's so awkward. Michael makes everything awkward, but especially instances with Toby. And I think sometimes people that are responsible for production and efficiency see the safety people coming and they're like, "Oh no, everything's got to slow down. Everything's got to stop." And they think they can't go hand in hand, but they actually can. So without further ado, let's get into your story. I think it's important for listeners to know who you are, a little bit about your background. So tell us briefly how your career started. You had a moment in your career that kind of reset the trajectory that you were on. Tell us what course you got on after that moment happened and then ultimately what led you to get into consulting or want to be a safety consultant?
Ryan Werner (06:44):
I started up in Northwest Indiana. That's where I was born and raised. And basically in my early 20s, I ended up working in a sheet metal shop. I was a fabricator, but at the end of the day, I was a first year apprentice that did every little dirty thing that they needed in the shop. After about a year apprenticing there, big thing that happened to me was we were unloading a flatbed of a black steel pipe one day and two hundred pound pipes rolled off onto me, which led to a couple back surgeries, some knee issues. Ultimately led me to starting college knowing that it was probably the smartest bet to shift into a career that was a little easier on the body. So that was the big moment that really shifted things that really scared me. So it sent me to college. But yeah, I was able to get into the safety field, which really made sense for me.
(07:31):
It's something that I gravitated towards that I really liked. But why I got into consulting was after I became pretty well-rounded with safety, the company I was with previous, we were forced to use consulting through our work comp insurance. It was kind of mandated that we did. So every year I had these auditors going through my facility and I would leave at the end of the day with a good list of a good idea of where we stood and what we needed to work on and kind of what's your grade for where you're at today. And I realized I love doing that type of work. So I started looking and RDC, you had the posting, the job made sense, the location made sense. And the fact that you guys had the guts to get something like this off the ground, inspiring is kind of a word that I would use is just because you want to work for that type of company that has the guts to do something like that and really go forward and put somebody in place that can accomplish those things.
Mike Smith (08:21):
And that's what we aim to do, partner with people, help them. We're not handing out fines or anything like that. It's really to help people. So your story's very interesting and I wanted to have our listeners hear that because you're very unique. You've been the victim of a safety incident, you've experienced that. You've been in the seat that a lot of our listeners are in right now. You've managed HSE, you've worked with on HSE teams, you've been in safety. You have a long tenured career as a safety person in the types of facilities that we're all working in every day. And not only that, you're now a consultant.You've really run the gauntlet, so to speak, and you've got a lot of tenure. You can speak to this subject from a lot of different angles, which is really cool. So let me ask you this question.
(09:09):
We all know that safety people and safety teams are busy. What types of things occupied your time when you were in a facility as an HSE person that kept you away from doing some of the things you really wanted to do, like be out on the floor walking it?
Ryan Werner (09:25):
If you're smart, you have your list of things you hope to accomplish every day, every week, every month, but you also have a few things that will always go to the front of the list when you walk in. Somebody might have been injured. There might've been a near miss. A supervisor might have a question. You might have a contractor that needs training. All of those little things are things that need to happen right now. So if you have a half a day blocked out to go audit a specific department or that type of thing, that can get pushed away very easily.
Mike Smith (09:53):
If you didn't have the time or you had a mandate, like you stated before, to work with an outside consultant, real honest question here. Did it ever feel a little bit threatening? Why do I need an outside person to come in? Does that say to someone above me that I'm not doing my job adequately enough or I'm stretched too thin? Did you ever take it personally? Was it ever threatening to you? Did you welcome it? Was it a help?
Ryan Werner (10:16):
I think it's a lot of scarier in the earlier days when you're less experienced, but as you grow, it's like taking a test in college or high school, whatever.You might be a little bit scared, but at the end of the day, you need to go know the grade that you got. So yeah, it can be scary, but you look at everything you're going to leave with when they're gone. You have your list of things that you need to be working on. You can point to things and say, "Hey boss, look at these things we're doing great at. Here's where we really need to target. And we have this plan that we can start today." So that's what you're leaving with. So there's really no reason to be scared. They're not coming down on you. They're not finding you. They're your partner. They're your partner in crime and they're there to work with you and have a discussion with you and set you forth on the right path to increase safety.
Mike Smith (10:56):
Yeah. And at the end of the day, they're actually making you look better.
Ryan Werner (10:59):
Sure.
Mike Smith (10:59):
More proactive. Great team huddle. I think we kind of cracked the issue open a little bit there. Now let's head out onto the floor, get a little bit more granular. In this segment on our floor walk, I want to talk about what an accident inside a facility actually costs us. I also want to talk about what a safety audit or an outside consultation looks like. What are the steps? What could I expect? And then lastly, what are some reasons for having an outside safety partner like RDC or someone else for that matter come in and do an annual safety audit? So first and foremost, man, we could spend a lot of time on this topic alone, but what does the cost of a safety incident actually look like from fines all the way to the things you can't see?
Ryan Werner (11:44):
As far as cost goes first, when you're talking about safety, you're talking about the possibility of hurting somebody that's an employee that you care for that you're responsible for. When you look at monetarily, a single violation can cost you tens of thousands of dollars. And then you also have the magnitude of how long is it going to take you to rectify that situation? You're going to be working with OSHA or whoever the department is that cited you the entire time to try to do it the best way possible and as quickly as possible. But when you start magnifying that and multiplying it by the amount of days, you can get really up there. And when you compare that to somebody like me who's uniquely with RDC, they charge me at the same price as a technician working on a door or a dock lock. So at the end of the day, you're not spending tens of thousands of dollars to have me come in and give you the safety consultation.
(12:30):
You're getting a very solid price that's uniquely more than competitive in the industry. I
Mike Smith (12:36):
Think that's one thing that makes us very unique, like you said, is when you contrast the cost of an accident versus what, just an annual checkup, if you want to call that costs, especially for RDC to come in and do it, we're a little different. We structure our fees so that for the same price you could have a technician inside your facility repairing a dock door, you could have a professional safety consultant doing a sweep of your facility. It really starts to make it look pretty appealing. It's like, "Hey man, take a proactive approach avoid all these costs with this minimal cost." Pretty smart decision at the end of the day. For those listening who don't know what an annual safety audit or a safety consultation might look like, talk to us about that. What does it look like? What are the steps? What can I expect if I were to invite you in to do a safety audit in my facility?
(13:26):
What's that look
Ryan Werner (13:27):
Like? Sure. One of the simple answers is that it can look a little different for every company depending on who you're dealing with, but we kind of have four pillars we deal with at RDC that are kind of locked in no matter what. First is discovery. And what is that? That's a few things that's I need to tour the facility I'm going to be in. I need some of that inside information of here's where we've had issues, here's where we've had incidents. This is a great person to talk to. They're very tenured here. But also where do you want us to concentrate? We can come in and just do an overlapping. We're going to look at everything we possibly can and let you know every violation we find or best practice we want to recommend. Yeah, we sit down and before we actually come in and do the work, we want to know what your expectation is, what our expectation is so that we know what the final product is going to kind of look like.
(14:11):
And then there's the actual data collection. So chances are I'm going to be spending at least a full day, sometimes me, sometimes an added person as well. And we're going to spend eight, 10, 12 hours, whatever it takes for us to look at all the different assets, all the different areas to talk with some of the different people and get all that data. And then we sit down, we prepare a report and we present all those findings to the customer so we can go through every incident. We can go just the ones that we view as very high potential for risk. And then once we get presenting the findings, the very cool thing that we have that's very unique with RDC is that
(14:48):
You're not getting a spreadsheet, you're not getting a Word doc, you're getting a very nice digital platform off of RDC Digital where you're going to get to go to your report. And in there you have a dashboard page that's very visually appealing as far as knowing where you stand with things. You can assign tasks to people, you can assign your own severity level. And we're not just providing, "Hey, you're doing this wrong, fix it. Here's the OSHA citation of what you're violating. Here's the best practice. Here's a picture of it. Here's where it's located in the facility." So you're really getting a lot of information that's unique and good for you. And when you look at an incident, you're going to know where to go, what to fix. You're going to be able to justify that to people above you of here's what OSHA says and here's what we're doing wrong.
Mike Smith (15:31):
And we're also going to propose ideas.
Ryan Werner (15:33):
Absolutely.
Mike Smith (15:34):
You're not just going to be left with, "Well, here's an issue. We're actually going to go in there and propose some different brainstorming ideas, products, or things that could address the issue or mitigate the issue." Yeah, I think that the interactive report that you get when you use us to do an outside safety audit is it becomes a project management tool. How many times have you gone to a meeting and everyone's rallying around this list and people are high fiving, cheering? They're like, "We're going to go do this. " And then nothing happens. Good intentions, but nothing productive comes of it. With our platform and our report, the tool really allows you to use it as a project management piece. You can divvy out different tasks to people on your team and really use divide and conquer mentality. It's really helpful. Ryan, last question in this segment.
(16:21):
If somebody listening is a little bit more warmed up to the idea of having an outside safety consultation or auditor come in and do a floor walk for them, but they're just not quite sure yet, can you give us some additional reasons why working with an outside safety partner might be a good idea? What are some of the benefits? Well,
Ryan Werner (16:39):
For one, you're going to have a safety professional come in that has a fresh set of eyes. Now, these are eyes that don't walk past something that maybe you've been walking past for quite a while and you just don't notice anymore. You're also getting somebody who on a weekly basis is going in a different facility, this same type of task. So you're constantly getting better. You're seeing best practices. You're seeing where people fail a lot. So all those things lead to a better report at the end of the day. Who doesn't love a good checklist? I like to start and end the week with my list and see what I've crossed off and what I haven't.
Mike Smith (17:08):
I love checklists.
Ryan Werner (17:10):
Yep. One thing that I've always had in my life when I've been involved with safety is there's always internal audits that you do yourself. You kind of benchmark, maybe you're going facility versus facility, or maybe you just want to get a snapshot of where you are internally, but you can prepare for those reports. We've literally had customers saying, "I'm going against three sister facilities and I want to win. Let's do this thing." And we're like, "Heck yeah, let's go for it. "
Mike Smith (17:35):
Yeah. And you got people getting ready to prep for OSHA VPP. Maybe they're inviting OSHA in voluntarily, which is a great thing to do. And they're like, "I want to dry run this. Hey, let's have an outside partner come in and give us a little test before the actual test." Those are all great benefits as to why you should at least consider doing an outside safety consult. I want to end this segment by actually giving my opinion here on this topic from a person who has been in the field for a number of years. I've worked in thousands of facilities. I've seen the best do it. I've seen the worst do it. Something I observe in the best facilities out there is that when it comes to production equipment and uptime and making your facility hum, people invest in PM. PM is preventative maintenance. No one listening to this podcast is probably going to disagree that PMing your production equipment that makes you money and keeps people employed is a good idea.
(18:31):
Everyone agrees it's a great idea and the best people out there do it. And something that you and I talked about probably six months ago or so that just blew my mind was we all think about preventative maintenance in relation to equipment. You have to do it to keep things running. You have to do it to keep things safe. I mean, the manufacturers of the equipment tell you you got to do it if you want warranty observed and handed out and stuff like that. Why don't people think about safety in the same way? Safety is intangible. It's invisible. It's a culture. It's a mindset. That's not something that's anchored down on your production floor. But when we were talking about this at lunch or wherever we were, this dawned on me for the first time. Why don't people think about safety that way? Hey, could I PM my safety program every year?
(19:20):
Could I have someone from the outside? Just like I have someone come in and PM a loading dock or a door, could I have someone take a look at my safety culture and program as well? Good idea, bad. What do you think about that?
Ryan Werner (19:32):
I think you always need that status check of where you are and annually makes a whole lot of sense. You want that snapshot of everything that you're doing right and what you're doing wrong. And say I give you a list tomorrow that you're going to work off and then in a year from now we're going to do it again. It's going to be very beneficial to see what you've done and haven't done. Yes.
Mike Smith (19:51):
Great point.
Ryan Werner (19:52):
Why haven't we gotten some of the other things accomplished? Maybe we need to add personnel in other areas or concentrate on other things, but you need that status check to reaffirm where you're at and what you need to be working on.
Mike Smith (20:03):
I want to read a quote and I think this will really drive home everything we've talked about. If an outside safety consultation helps prevent just one issue or injury, that's no longer a safety expense. That's just a smart business decision. Great note to hang our hat on. Great note to end on. All right, so it's time for us to clock out. We're going to let our listeners clock in so to speak. For those listening who may have had their mind changed or may have had some things said that made them perk up and think, "You know what? I'm open to this. " What are some things or what's something our listeners can do Monday morning when they clock in to take it a step towards entertaining an outside safety audit, perhaps by a safety partner they already have in place or RDC?
Ryan Werner (20:49):
I think when you sit down and you look at your calendar, we already talked about how things can get pushed aside real quick because things take precedent. But look at your calendar, look out three months. When are you going to have even a day to go out and do what we can do in one department? So when you have somebody like me come in that can really dedicate a few days to something to really looking at it from one perspective and doesn't have injuries that they have to move towards or a near miss or something of that sort, and then just knowing you can concentrate on everything you need to concentrate on, but you have a professional out there giving you your status check.
Mike Smith (21:25):
Right.
Ryan Werner (21:25):
Yeah.
Mike Smith (21:26):
I would challenge you too. The calendar point is a great point. Look three years or three months in the past too. When do you have time to do it three months from now? And did you have time in the last three months to do it? If you're in a position where you haven't gotten out on the floor recently and you're looking at your calendar and you're like, "I don't know when I'm going to get out there and spend a day or two or three," it might be time to think about having someone like RDC come in and partner with you.
Ryan Werner (21:51):
And that's the key right there. It's a partner. It's not somebody who's going to find you. It's not somebody who's going to point their finger at you and say, "This needs fixed immediately." We may have some conversations like that, but we're your partner. Let's make a plan so we can fix this the right way.
Mike Smith (22:04):
If you're interested and you're listening to this show and you think, "Man, I could really use that, " or, "I want to learn a little bit more," please go to our website, rd-co.com and find the RDC consulting page, learn more about consulting. That's a great place to check out a story we have online featuring your testimony and what got you into safety. It's called The Moment That Changed Everything. And lastly, you can request more information about a consultation on the website and get in touch with one of our people. Ryan, it was great to have you on the show today. Thanks for speaking about this subject. It was good to be with you.
Ryan Werner (22:38):
Great to be here, bud. Thanks. Thank you.
Mike Smith (22:43):
Thank you for listening to Clocking In, brought to you by Robert Dietrich Company. If this was helpful to you, share this episode with someone else who could benefit from it. Don't forget to follow the show. And if you want more insights like this via email, go to rd-co.com.