Managing Emergency Response Incidents in Cost Sensitive R & D Facilities
Gilbaugh, Brian
(Applied Materials, Santa Clara, Ca.)
In a business environment that is becoming increasingly cost sensitive, ensuring effective response to emergency incidents at a semiconductor research and development (R & D) facility like Applied Materials presents a number of challenges. Achieving greater efficiencies in terms of time and cost savings while ensuring adequate response resources can at times appear to be irreconcilable. In 2000 the Santa Clara facility implemented a novel approach to emergency response which has not only improved response proficiency but also provided added benefits in the Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) disciplines. Along with the typical use of volunteer members, Applied Materials SCLA has employed the use of a small nucleus of highly-trained, full-time responders to augment the Emergency Response Team (ERT). When not responding to emergencies, the “Core ERT” is tasked with additional EHS-related duties along with providing all ERT-related training internally. By working a 24/7 schedule the Core ERT is able to perform many of these EHS-related tasks outside normal business hours. This reduces business interruption while still ensuring regulatory compliance and effective utilization of our resources. The presentation will highlight lessons learned as this private industry emergency response model has evolved since its inception.