November 2024 Volume 6

OPERATIONS & MANAGEMENT

FORGING COMPANY MAINTAINING YOUR INSURANCE COVERAGE IN TODAY’S HIGH LIABILITY ENVIRONMENT By Jeff Fredline

S ometimes it is difficult to navigate today’s business environment. There are very few constants anymore. Energy costs, material costs, machinery costs, insurance, labor costs, and then our customers request price reductions. Where does it end? As it relates to our insurance costs and coverages we can establish better control through process management. There has been a significant increase in natural disasters. Please see the diagram in Figure 1.

Let’s examine several potential areas for improvement that can be cost effective and implemented for improvement. Forging Operation Safety Tips Forging is a process that naturally creates hazards, heat, flying debris, handling hot components, excessive noisy environments, trip hazards and hot oil systems. Common PPE Related Forging Injuries The first rule of press safety is to stop, look and listen. Become aware of your environ ment. Burns and smoke/gas poisoning are common. Working in an industry where smoke or gas are in the surrounding atmo sphere all day is damaging, but protective clothing and equipment can reduce this possible damage slightly. It is key to take frequent breaks in the fresh air. Other possible hazards might include: • Cuts and scrapes can be minimized by wearing proper PPE such as protective forearm sleeves and gloves. • Crushed fingers are usually the result of placing our hands where they should not be. Protect yourself by always being aware of potential pinch points. • Sight or hearing damage (See the section of this article regarding exces sive noise.) • Repetitive strain in the elbow. Produc tion forging is repetitive. Often, we use tongs to move the forgings through the various die stations. Transfer automa tion can reduce manual efforts but unless you have a very large part run it is difficult to justify the cost. Care should be taken to reduce the stress on the operator during production runs.

Figure 1: U.S. 2023 billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters Courtesy of Cottingham and Butler

As you can see the number of events is increasing which in turn applies pressure on the market. As a result of the number of natural causes as well as the level of industrial incidents the insurance market is changing. We have moved from a Soft Market to a Hard Market as shown below in the chart in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Hard vs. Soft Market Cycle Courtesy of Cottingham and Butler

FIA MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2024 32