As Timken invests for growth and expands its footprint in Asia, the company’s environmental, health and safety (EH&S) professionals are making significant strides toward achieving EH&S leadership in China and India.

Together with staff from the U.S., EH&S coordinators from Wuxi, Suzhou and Yantai, China, and Jamshedpur, India, met for the first time in Wuxi early in 2007. The newly established team is responsible for developing and implementing safety performance improvement strategies and standardizing procedures to comply with regulatory directives in China and India.

“During the 2006 corporate EH&S conference in the U.S., I had the opportunity to speak with several members of the newly developed European safety coordinator team,” said Xuefeng (Martin) Liu, EH&S supervisor – Wuxi. “I knew this same team approach would benefit our plants in Asia and volunteered to host the first meeting of the Asia team.”

“Team-based” safety management system audits are on the horizon at Timken plants worldwide, and coordinators in Asia are looking forward to participating in them. In addition, the Asian team will provide EH&S expertise during the start-up of two new Timken plants currently under construction in Chennai, India, and Chengdu, China.