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How Bimbo Bakeries USA Built a Proactive, Data-Driven Safety System Across Hundreds of Sites
Bimbo Bakeries USA is the largest bakery manufacturer in North America. Dan Schorn, the Senior Director of Safety, leads a team focused on building strong safety practices among leaders at hundreds of sites to protect thousands of employees.
Impact
- Over 80,000 hazardous conditions reported year-to-date through engaged frontline employees
- Total recordable incident rate is 2.1, which is better than any previous year
- Millions saved in workers’ compensation through significant injury reduction and prevention of recurrences
Outcomes
Over the past 18 years, Bimbo Bakeries has seen a remarkable transformation, with Intelex serving as a critical partner through the majority of their injury reduction journey.
As Dan notes: "It's hard to attribute everything in our safety system to Intelex, but if I showed you the trajectory of injuries for our organization over time, it's huge. And Intelex was there for the biggest part of that decline in injuries. It's how we use the system to be able to look at where the problem areas may be."
The platform has become an integral part of operations that leaders at every level use every day including using data to build presentations for executive leadership team meetings and regional safety reviews.
Intelex Applications
The Challenge for Bimbo Bakeries
When Dan joined Bimbo Bakeries USA 18 years ago, there was no formal safety management system. Records were kept on paper, in Word documents, or on SharePoint. The Total Recordable Incident Rate was over 10, incidents often went unreported, and the safety team had little insight into trends or root causes.
The team implemented safety software, but it was too basic and didn’t fit their investigation process. Dan recalled that they were sometimes seen as a demanding customer because they had higher expectations of what software should do. As the team matured, it was clear they needed a more advanced solution with data analysis and reporting capabilities, so they could learn from incidents and prevent them in the future.
“If I showed you the downward trajectory of injuries for our organization over time, it’s huge. And Intelex was there for the biggest part of that decline.”
Dan Schorn, Senior Director of Safety
“We've explored many other options over the years, and by far, Intelex has been proven year in and year out to be the solution for us. “
Dan Schorn, Senior Director of Safety
“We've built a good business relationship with the Intelex team and we've become internal experts so we don’t need to lean on Intelex as much to make modifications or change settings.”
Dan Schorn, Senior Director of Safety
How Intelex Helped Bimbo Bakeries
Bimbo Bakeries USA chose Intelex because it had the configurability to support their 8-step root cause analysis process, which their old system couldn’t handle, and scalability to grow with their needs.
Intelex arrived at the first implementation workshop with a plan, but Dan and his team pushed for a different approach. The salesperson quickly rebuilt the demo overnight to match their vision. Dan says that’s when he knew Intelex was the right option for Bimbo Bakeries USA.
The team’s rollout plan began with building internal expertise. Dan's team piloted the system at a couple of locations to thoroughly understand its capabilities before promoting it organization-wide. They began by tracking injuries that required medical attention beyond first aid to ensure the workers’ compensation team could send data to external administrators, and the safety team could investigate properly.
Once this foundation was established, they moved down the hazard pyramid to capture leading indicators. The team promoted Intelex’s easy-to-use interface to employees, so they’d be more willing to report issues.
“We can report near misses and hazardous conditions, get them corrected, and document everything,” Dan said. “We follow up on these actions, track action closures and go back to employees to show them the impact of their reporting.”
Bimbo Bakeries USA now uses Intelex as a key part of their incident investigation process. Teams hold weekly calls to review root causes, add photos and videos, and make sure corrective actions are completed. Leadership dashboards provide executives with the appropriate details in real-time, and analytics tools help identify problem areas and track how well solutions are working.