The Safety Director works directly under and in conjunction with the Vice-President of Manufacturing (VPoM). Depending upon the products chosen for production, the Safety Director may have a relatively important or a relatively minor role in the company.

B. A Typical meeting for the Safety Director

When the typical meeting begins, the Safety Director will first check in with the VPoM regarding outstanding safety problems (if any) and with the projected manufacturing plan for the afternoon. The Safety Director will consult his records to make certain that those individuals the VPoM has designated as working particular jobs have the safety qualifications to perform those jobs. If not, he needs to immediately inform the VPoM.

The remainder of the meeting, all save 4-5 minutes, will probably pass with the Safety Director acting in a manner no different than wage workers. However, he should consult his records to make sure that, gradually, every member can work at every process from a safety stand-point. This means probably devoting an additional ten minutes per meeting at most to training new members of old members on new processes.

Every good company maintains a proactive safety policy, so should a K-Business company. This means that the SD not only reacts to safety incidents but, ideally, prevents them from happening in the first place and, in the unfortunate event of their occurrence, takes the proper steps to keep the VPoM's work force working at full force.

Safety hazards in a K-Business form will typically take one of two forms: (1) working with a dangerous machine or (2) working with a dangerous materials.

In terms of dangerous machines, the Safety Director needs, first of all, to learn to work the machine himself in the most safety-conscious manner. Typically this means making sure that employees devote their full attention to the machine and, hence, while they may wear earplugs, they do not wear walkman or other devices that might prevent their hearing a warning. Also, it means making sure that workers do not wear any devices that may cause an injury. Typically, these include watches, jewelry, hijabs, if not tied properly, and long, unbuttoned sleeves. Ideally, the Safety Director should get someone well used to using the machine to explain the proper procedures before using it. In lieu of this, the Safety Director himself should try to come up with a list of possible hazards, review them with the VPoM, and then inform employees of them.

Hazardous materials may become the greater problem for K-Business companies. While the finished product may hold no dangers whatsoever, assembling it may incur using toxic glues, resins, etc.. Ideally, again, the SD should engage someone well used to working with the materials to explain them. In place of this, he should, again, assemble a list of hazards to discuss with the VPoM.

Through the course of the year, the Safety Director should gradually check out all employees on all processes of production. The Safety Director will maintain the records of whatever procedure he/she uses, and any accident remains his responsibility. Thus he needs to design a procedure for "checking out" each employee whether by quiz, by observation, or simply by lecturing. He should explain this procedure to the VPoM who will approve.

Few of these directly effect the Safety Director. However, given the one year ban on service companies, all companies will manufacture. This probably means more work with potentially dangerous materia and processes.

II. The Paperwork of the Safety Director

The Safety Director only needs to maintain two forms. Ideally, he should have no need to use the second one, but he should have some familiarity with it.

This form functions as the heart of the K-Business Company's pro-active safety policy. As soon as the company decides upon its personnel, the Safety Director can replace the office names and "Worker 1" with the actual names of the students in the company. The VPoHR may allow him to simply cut and paste these names. He/she can do this even before the company decides upon a product. In addition, he needs to type in the contact information for each individual, i.e. the parents' phone number from the VPoHR's worksheet. The Safety Director also needs to insert the number of the school nurse or a suitable alternative contact person. Again, the Safety director should save multiple copies. Thus, each time he adds a new employee or changes a phone number, he needs to save this form under a new name, i.e. "log01" becomes "log02."

The Safety Director, in conjunction, with the VPoM, needs to determine which, if any, processes need the SD to approve of workers. These he/she will list at the bottom as Process # 1, # 2, etc.. As soon as possible, the Safety Director will "check out" each employee on that process. Ideally, he should start with the VPoM first and with those individuals needed to start production. As he "checks them out," he will type in the date that they pass his examination and meet the safety standards. He can write this information in the paper copy of his records, but he should type the date at home and print a new, updated copy of the records.

In the event of an individual meeting the standards and then not following them, the Safety Director can, in conjunction with the VPoM, delete his signature and make the employee pass the "Check out" procedures again.

The record contains sufficient space to check out individuals on two different products. If necessary, the Safety Director can add more columns to the record.

The Safety Director needs only fill in entries in the Safety Log Book in the event of an accident. If an accident occurs, he would, first refer to the nurse's number and contact the school nurse or alternative medical contact. Second, he would call the home contact number for the injured person to arrange to have the parent at the hospital or school, depending upon the severity of the situation. If the injured worker must go to the hospital, the Safety Director and, depending on the situation, the company President will accompany the worker.

Finally, the Safety Director needs to carefully fill in the section pertaining to how the Company can prevent future accidents. Then, he needs to have the VPoM initial. If the VPoM is not satisfied with the Safety Director's updated procedures, the Safety Director may need to consider and reconsider. The VPoM must sign up as approving the updated procedures.

The Safety Director will not normally report at the Monthly Board Meeting unless requested to do so by the VPoM. More often, the VPoM will include any information, such as percentage of workers trained, new safety procedures, etc. as part of his own report.

The Safety Director and VPoM should work closely together but not necessarily in total harmony. In the case of a dangerous product choice, typically no one disputes the importance of a Safety Director, who acts as something of a "conscience" for the VPoM. The Safety Director needs to remember, in this kind of an environment that, though the VPoM may, at times seem to hurry him along with his procedures, the VPoM as well as he may ultimately pay the price for a safety accident.

In the case of a very safe product, the VPoM may see the Safety Director as over-cautious and as something of a "drag" on productivity. In this case, the Safety Director may find himself trying to defend his existence in the face of an assault from a cost-conscious CFO and VPoHR with little defense from his own VPoM. Clever SDs often, in this position, resort to becoming effectively assistant VPoMs (particularly if the company has a weak purchasing manager), helping the VPoM with his demanding schedule. Thus, if the VPoM is called into an urgent meeting with the CFO, it may fall to the Safety Director to function as a temporary VPoM and keep production rolling.