At the start of 2012, David Bousquet took charge of a project to build the Vallourec Group’s Guangzhou plant in southern China.
The factory will make tubes for steam generators used in the nuclear industry. For the first 18 months, David worked on the construction of the plant and the recruitment of around 100 people, before starting up production on the site and looking closely at safety.
Vallourec’s safety project in China
David Bousquet was fully aware that he had to build a strong safety culture from scratch on the Guangzhou site. He explains:
The new team was very young. This was an advantage, because it is always easier to build than to change.
When Marie Hsu, ETSCAF’s consultant and instructor, arrived in Guangzhou in the spring of 2014, he was pleasantly surprised. Marie is part French, part Chinese, and speaks fluent Mandarin.
David Bousquet and Marie Hsu agreed on three points:
An instructor with a dual French-Chinese culture was a huge advantage!
Marie trained 40 supervisors and managers in the behavioural aspects of safety.
In a made-to-measure programme, for one week, starting in plenary sessions, then with each manager, one by one, she addressed the analysis of the situation, the right reactions, safety mini-meetings, etc.
David Bousquet adds:
The fact that Marie came from France to train my employees was perceived by all the personnel as a clear sign of our determination to build and develop a long-term safety culture in line with our policy of continuous improvement.
18 months after the training, the messages sent by ETSCAF are still implemented on a daily basis.
ETSCAF’s actions also helped to optimise management’s potential.
At the end of 2014, six months after the training, the frequency rate was 14.6. By the end of 2015, it had dropped to 5.3.
On the behavioural safety front, we are progressing every day, thanks to the training delivered by ETSCAF.
