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Prioritizing fire safety at a Brazil textile company

A TenSquared Case Study

group photo
Suburban TenSquared Team

Company Profile

Company: Suburban

Country: Brazil

Industry: Textile & Apparel

Highlights

Goal: Conduct a full evacuation of the building in an organized and safe way in under 3 minutes and gather all workers at the designated meeting/assembly point in under one minute.

Methods:

  • Involving employees from all levels in risk assessment
  • Creating and training a fire brigade who were responsible for identifying specific areas for improvement
  • Training current employees and adding fire safety and evacuation training to new employee orientation

Results: Surpassed goal, reducing evacuation time to 2 minutes 47 seconds

Case Study

Experts say that the response during the first crucial minutes of an emergency (such as a fire) are the most important for containing the damage and reducing the cost to human life.

The Brazilian company Suburban chose emergency response as their challenge area for their TenSquared project. Their two-fold goal was to a) conduct a full evacuation of the building in an organized and safe way in under 3 minutes and b) gather all workers at the designated meeting/assembly point in under one minute.

Suburban’s TenSquared team involved employees from all levels of the company in evaluating existing emergency procedures. Their assessment revealed the need for a fire brigade, which the team selected and trained.

The brigade identified several shortcomings, specifically:

  • Fire hoses in the facility were not connected to a water source
  • Chemicals were being stored in hazardous areas
  • Excess material was blocking emergency paths

The TenSquared team was able to remedy each of those hazards. They also placed new signage in the facility to indicate emergency routes. Finally, the team trained employees in emergency procedures and incorporated the training into new employee orientation. By implementing these changes, the team was able to reduce evacuation time to 2 minutes 47 seconds, 13 seconds below the goal of 3 minutes.

What is TenSquared?

Find out how SAI’s innovative 100-day worker engagement and capacity-building program can help your company address root causes of workplace issues, overcome institutional hurdles to change, and foster a culture of continual, sustainable improvement.

Learn More

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