David Willis

- Dave Willis, Vice Chairman - FMI Management Consultants

David Willis dwillis@fmi-svs.com 866-469-6899 x214

In the 1960s, Andrews joined, as did Jerry Jackson, now FMI's president; David Willis, who became an FMI principal; Hoyt Lowder, now an FMI senior vice president; and Floyd McCall, who was in line to run FMI before leaving to establish a software firm focused on the construction industry.
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In the early 1980s, Fails & Associates acquired Fails & Associates of Tampa, which Willis had started.

Dave Willis, co-founder and vice chairman of the board of FMI Corp., is retiring after 43 years to concentrate on practice management for the company's Zero-Injury Process consulting practice, which he created.He opened FMI's Tampa office in 1965 and has been the leader of its Quality & Productivity Improvement Group.In addition, he developed the company's Field Productivity Improvement Process, the Job Profits Program and the Total Quality Management Process.

"They have to walk the walk," says David Willis, a consultant for FMI.
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"Research shows that better than 85 percent of injuries are caused by people practicing at-risk behavior," says Willis."A key element in prevention is to involve crew members in monitoring their own behavior.Any task has certain behaviors that make that task safe, so it's important to know the behaviors, the systems and conditions of a given task and train crew members to monitor those behaviors at least twice a day.

"We recommend making a list of 10 to 20 behaviors, systems and conditions and, in a given week, assign an employee and a crew to monitor those," Willis says.
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Studies indicate incentives are keys to improving awareness, according to Willis, but he says they should be used appropriately.

"I would rather reward people for practicing safe behavior rather than not having an injury, because you can be lucky," he says.

"They have to walk the walk," says David Willis, a consultant for FMI."I see a lot of companies in which key people will go out on a jobsite and not wear a hard hat in a hard hat area or not wear safety glasses when itÆs required.That sends the wrong message."

Safety Directors

Management should provide the funds to hire a safety director.
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"Research shows that better than 85 percent of injuries are caused by people practicing at-risk behavior," says Willis."A key element in prevention is to involve crew members in monitoring their own behavior.Any task has certain behaviors that make that task safe, so it's important to know the behaviors, the systems and conditions of a given task and train crew members to monitor those behaviors at least twice a day.

"We recommend making a list of 10 to 20 behaviors, systems and conditions and, in a given week, assign an employee and a crew to monitor those," Willis says."That should be turned over to the foreman, and if there is anything that is unsafe, the foreman should take responsibility for doing something about it.

"We find that, when you push responsibility for safety down to the crew, you achieve much safer conditions than if the foreman, superintendent or safety director takes on that responsibility."

ManagementÆs role should be to maintain oversight of the program.
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Studies indicate incentives are keys to improving awareness, according to Willis, but he says they should be used appropriately.

"I would rather reward people for practicing safe behavior rather than not having an injury, because you can be lucky," he says."Some people practice at-risk behavior all the time and donÆt have an injury and they get rewards.IÆd rather see the award given to people who make observations or are practicing safe behavior when a crew is inspected.

Preplanning

Planning should be done before a safety director is appointed for a job and before any training takes place.