Simmons Bedding Company’s manufacturing facility in Agawam, Mass., has been approved for participation in OSHA’s Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP) by the Boston Regional Office of the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), becoming the 13th SHARP site in the state of Massachusetts. Inclusion in SHARP is reserved for companies that exhibit a superior management structure for ensuring their employees’ safety and well-being. SHARP members serve as models of workplace safety for both their local business communities and their respective industries.
“Ensuring the health and well-being of our employees is an important part of Simmons’ core values system, so we have gone to great lengths to establish superior safety programs at every Simmons plant,” said Kimberly Samon, Simmons’ senior vice president of human resources. “We are extremely honored that OSHA considers the safety and health management system of the Agawam plant worthy of one of its highest honors, the SHARP designation.”
Companies applying to participate in SHARP must meet a number of requirements before they can be recommended for certification. These prerequisites include resolving any potential dangers noted during a hazard identification survey, utilizing an OSHA safety and health management system and lowering specific injury, illness and incident rates below the national average. Simmons’ Agawam facility posted an OSHA incident rate of 1.1 last year, compared to the furniture industry’s rate of 8.5 during that same time period.
“SHARP is reserved for companies that demonstrate a strong commitment to workplace safety,” said Marthe Kent, regional administrator for OSHA’s Boston office. “Simmons’ Agawam plant possesses a detailed yet easy-to-understand safety and health program that serves as an example to other companies and deserves to be recognized.”
The Massachusetts facility is one of several Simmons manufacturing plants across the United States to receive safety accolades in recent years. In 2006, Cal/OSHA honored the company’s San Leandro, Calif., facility with the Golden Gate Partnership Recognition for its excellent employee safety program. In 2005, the company’s Charlotte, N.C., plant received the SHARP honor for the first time, and Simmons’ Phoenix plant renewed its membership in SHARP and in OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs’ Star division (VPP Star), another prestigious honor. Simmons’ facilities in Salt Lake City; Kansas City, Kan., and York, Pa., each celebrated their second year without a recordable incident in 2005 as well.
About Simmons Bedding Company
Atlanta-based Simmons Bedding Company, a subsidiary of Simmons Company, is one of the world's largest mattress manufacturers. It operates 21 conventional bedding manufacturing facilities and two juvenile bedding manufacturing facilities across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.