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As encaps ulated in the Group’s Occupational Safety
and Health (“OSH”) Policy, the Group is fully commited
to ensure the safety, health and well-being of its
employes and to protect them against risks. Having
taken the road to sustainability, OSH is an integral
part of the Group’s CSR programme and a key element
in attaining RSPO certification . As an indication of
its growing importance, the anual alocation for
promoting OSH in the workplace has been steadily
provided over the years.
Our objective is not only to comply with
the statutory requirements but to
inculcate a culture within the Group
whereby OSH becomes ingrained as a
way of life in the work-place. The seeds
for a nascent OSH culture have already
been sown, but they need to be
continually nurtured before coming to
full bloom. This calls for the full
commitment of staff across all levels,
with the top management leading by
example.
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As borne out by the
numbers, financial year 2010 was a
commendable year on the OSH front.
The OSH Compliance Project was
launched in July 2009 to gauge the
level of OSH compliance among
operating units. From a level of 57.85%
achieved during the first audit conducted
in October 2009, the level of
compliance rose to 90.90% at the end
of December 2010. It is expected that
all the selected operating units will be
fully compliant by early 2011.
The Group continued to register a yearon-
year improvement in its safety record
measured in terms of the number of
accident cases, number of work days
lost, cases for every 1,000 workers and
fatal cases reported. The number of
accident cases in 2010 has fallen to
31, compared to 39 reported in 2009.
More importantly, we have reduced the
number of fatalities to zero, from 2
reported in the previous year.
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Safety
audits were conducted throughout the
year by TPB’s Safety and Health Officer
as well as the Department of
Occupational Safety and Health
(“DOSH”). No major issues were
reported by the DOSH audits, whose
findings also indicate that all the
operating units had met the minimum
OSH requirements stipulated under the
OSH Compliance Project.
Other programmes rolled out during the
year included a Health and Safety
Campaign in the Northern Peninsular
Region. The campaign was held on 23
March and invited guests included
representatives from the relevant
government departments. Among the
activities were a safety talk by the
Director of DOSH, Kelantan; a blood
donation drive; health and dental checkups
and demonstrations on fire-fighting
and how to administer cardiopulmonary
resuscitation.
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While our OSH
per formance in 2010 has been
generally satisfactory, we cannot afford
to rest on our laurels, not when the
stakes are so high. The Group will
continue to pursue a zero tolerance
stance as far as safety is concerned.
Phase 2 of the OSH Compliance Project
will be launched in 2011, with an
emphasis on health, welfare and
environmental matters.
The Group will continue to invest in
OSH not only because it makes good
business sense, but by doing so, we are
protecting the well-being of our greatest
asset – our human capital.
Quality is one of the key ingredients to
the Group’s success and will continue to
play a pivotal role as we strive to bring
the Group to even greater heights.
Spear-headed by the Total Quality
Environmental Management Strategic
Business Unit (“TQEM-SBU”), our quest
for quality excellence is never-ending.
Each year we set new targets and strive
for continual improvements in all aspects
of our operations, laying the foundations
for a quality mind-set and culture among
our people.
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To reinforce the quality
culture, TQEM-SBU began implementing
quality audits during the year under
review. These audits have a two-fold
objective; the first is to facilitate an
independent inspection on harvesting
activities and milling operations to
determine if they meet quality standards.
The other objective is to ensure
adherence to the Basic Policy Guidelines
by the respective operating units
(“OPUs”). Performance that fails to meet
quality requirements can be identified
and recommendations can be relayed
to the OPUs concerned so that remedial
action can be taken. During the year,
TQEM-SBU focused its attention on the
Kuching and Mukah districts, conducting
audits in eight OPUs.
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In our quality
initiatives, one of our most important
goals is the improvement of the oil
extraction rate (“OER”) and kernel
extraction rate (“KER”) achieved by the
Group’s eight palm oil mills. During the
year under review, the OER and KER
had improved to 21.54% and 5.35%
respectively as compared to 21.20%
and 5.31% recorded in 2009. Five
mills achieved an average OER that
was above 21.00% in 2010, from only
four in 2009.
These achievements also underscore the
important role played by the Joint
Consultative Committees (“JCC”). The
JCC is composed of estate and mill
personnel and was set up in 2007 as a
quality improvement initiative. The 12
JCCs that have been established
provide a useful function in identifying
problems, recommending solutions,
resolving conf l ict s and sharing
information with other JCC teams.
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A regular feature on TPB’s
corporate calendar, Quality Day serves
as a useful platform for JCC teams to
challenge the status quo and to map out
n ew strategies for continual
improvements, the objective being to
reduce costs, while increasing
productivity and revenue for the Group.
During the year, the Sibu, Southern
Peninsular, Miri and Northern Peninsular
Regions have held their Quality Day.
For the Sabah/Lawas and Kuching
regions, the events are scheduled in
2011.
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Established
by the International Organisation for
Standardisation, the ISO 9000 family
of standards is an internationally
recognised standard for a quality
management system. Accreditation to
ISO is a stringent process involving
many steps. During the year, the Sg.
Kachur Palm Oil Mill and the Ulu Sebol
Palm Oil Mill earned their certifications
to ISO 9001:2008 on 16 July and 6
September 2010 respectively. Our
journey towards quality excellence does
not end here. With most of the good
practices in place, the Group has set its
sights on implementing a Total Quality
Management System.
In the present world of increasing
environmental and social consciousness,
there is growing concern that products
are produced without undue harm to
the environment or society. RSPO
certification is a seal of approval
allaying such fears, taking into account
not only good agricultural practices but
also responsible social and
environmental management. Having
completed the earlier preparation, a
meeting with stakeholders was
convened on 11 November 2010 as
required by the RSPO Principles and
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