Defense contractor Hanwha Aerospace has launched the Safety Culture Innovation Committee, an independent body led by outside experts. Prompted by the explosion at the Daejeon business site last month that killed five people, the move is aimed at fundamentally reviewing the safety and health management system and preparing measures to prevent a recurrence.
Hanwha Aerospace said on the 14th that it would begin full-scale activities to prevent a recurrence of accidents, starting with the launch of the Safety Culture Innovation Committee.
To ensure independence and expertise, the committee will have 13 members, including 11 outside experts and two employees recommended by the labor union. Moon Il, an honorary distinguished professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Yonsei University, will serve as Chairperson. Moon is an expert in process safety and chemical engineering who served as president of the Korea Institute of Hazardous Materials and as head of the National Strategic R&D Directorate at the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF).
By the end of this month, Hanwha Aerospace plans to appoint two experts each in systems management, safety culture, industrial safety, chemical safety, and military explosives. To reflect the experience and views of on-site workers, two people recommended by the labor union will also participate as Commissioners.
The committee plans to reexamine from scratch the level of safety management across business sites and diagnose structural vulnerabilities throughout organization, systems, procedures, and on-site operations to overhaul the safety and health management system.
In phase one, focusing on business sites that handle hazardous materials such as explosives, it will assess the status of hazardous materials management and process risks, and conduct a detailed review of standard operating procedures (SOP) and safety management systems to establish safety management measures.
In phase two, it plans to diagnose the overall safety management system—including response to serious accidents, safety investments and budget operations, and safety-related organizations and decision-making structures—to identify areas for improvement.
The committee plans to communicate with on-site workers and prepare practical improvement measures. Based on the diagnosis, it will ensure that necessary corrective actions are carried out swiftly, and in September it plans to hold a labor-management joint "new safety culture innovation proclamation ceremony."