By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Going six months with no lost-time accidents in a place the size of Ameriwood, with 370 employees, is like one person continuing that feat for 159 years.
Ameriwood also has a ready-to-assemble furniture plant in Tiffin, Ohio. They are part of Dorel Products, which has two plants in Canada.
Bogen joined Ameriwood two years ago as health safety and training manager from AutoCam, though the Boston native began developing his niche serving in the Coast Guard, where he dealt with marine law enforcement, port security and cargo storage.
By trade, he is a machinist and a toolmaker, which he has done since he was 18 in 1958.
Including reserves, he stayed in the military for almost 40 years.
He teaches machining two nights a week at Kalamazoo Valley Community College. He's also taught at Southwestern Michigan College and Lake Michigan College and taught high school for a year in Vicksburg at 55.
Bogen's records chart the journey at Ameriwood from being a company with "lots of accidents. When I first came here in January two years ago, I looked at their OSHA reportable accidents record for the year before. At that time they had 120 reportable OSHA accidents. That's way too much in a year for a company this size.
It took until January 2003 for everyone in the plant to complete the program.
Bogen said as a rule of thumb, any lost-time injury costs the company $3,000. Multiply that by 120 and it's at least $360,000. Ameriwood has cut that figure to five reportable injuries this year. They get patched up and are back on the job. There have been no lost-time mishaps since October.
Lost-time accidents cost employees income, cost the company their contribution for a period of time that isn't easily made up and expose them to pain and suffering.
Bogen said, "Previously the majority, 50 percent, were back strain from lifting. We had our share of carpal tunnel" repetitive motion injuries. "Rotator cuff injuries. Plain cuts and some lacerations that were pretty severe. It's not so much saws that get them, it's things like steel banding wrapped around something. They cut the banding and it comes back and gets them in the arm. I had one girl hit two or three times with steel banding. We haven't had any of that this year. The previous record we had was 88 days. Now we're at 191 days and still going."
Ameriwood cooked out bratwurst to mark the milestone and is making up T-shirts with the logo on the back saying, 'Our Ameriwood team/working toward an accident-free workplace.' Every 30 days we do something really neat. Last month we had a cookout with strip steaks for every single person here."
Vice President and General Manager Leon Dodd comes in after midnight to make sure that third shift is recognized as well as daytime employees. For May a catered breakfast is being considered.
Bogen, a Red Cross instructor, two weeks ago finished putting 30 employees through a first aid program.