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At Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Corporation (YMMC), a team of 33 employees has achieved something worth celebrating: more than a year without a recordable injury.
For the Plant 1 Distribution team, the milestone represents more than a number. It reflects a transformation in how the team approaches its work — built one shift, one decision and one conversation at a time.

Plant 1 Distribution operates in a fast-paced environment, providing materials needed to support production. With frequent powered industrial truck (PIT) and pedestrian traffic, team members must continually assess their surroundings, communicate with one another and make sound decisions with safety in mind.

Just a few years ago, the team’s safety results told a different story.

In 2024, Plant 1 Distribution experienced two recordable injuries, including one lost-time injury. In 2025, the team experienced one lost-time injury. In 2026, the team has achieved zero recordable injuries.

For Gordon Smith, Plant 1 Distribution Supervisor, TVA-UGC-WVA, the change didn’t begin with a complicated new program. It began by reframing the team’s priorities. “The only change I made was to help with reframing our priorities,” Smith said. “We must remind ourselves that everything we do at work is important. However, if we do not consider the safety aspect of what we’re doing, we only completed part of our job.”

SQDC — In That Order for a Reason

That philosophy has become part of the team’s everyday conversations.

Smith regularly reminds employees that SQDC — Safety, Quality, Delivery and Cost — is in that order for a reason.

He reinforces the message throughout the day with simple reminders that put the priority into perspective:

“I can order replacement parts off the shelf. I can’t order a replacement you.”
“I would rather do paperwork on a broken horn over broken people.”
“Our checks don’t matter if we don’t make it home.”

The messages may be simple, but Smith is quick to point out that the team’s success belongs to the people putting those words into action.

“I can encourage an outcome every day, but getting this kind of result only comes from a team that is focused and committed on going home safely at the end of each shift,” Smith said.

Turning Safety Into a Team Commitment

For Plant 1 Distribution, that commitment is especially important because conditions can change quickly.

Team members work around frequent PIT and pedestrian traffic while ensuring production has the materials it needs. That requires them to constantly reassess their surroundings and make sound decisions — not just to keep materials moving, but to keep one another safe.

The team also takes safety stand downs seriously, using them as opportunities to stop, engage and learn. Over time, those everyday behaviors have helped make safety something more than a requirement. It has become a shared expectation.

The team’s progress can be seen in the numbers: from two recordables in 2024, to one lost-time injury in 2025, to zero recordables in 2026.

But numbers tell only part of the story.

Behind that improvement are 33 people making hundreds of decisions every day: a team member speaking up when something doesn’t look right, a PIT operator slowing down, a pedestrian remaining aware of equipment movement, or someone recognizing that conditions have changed and reassessing before continuing.

It is a team understanding that providing materials to production is important — but doing it safely is part of doing the job right.

Plant 1 Distribution’s more than yearlong recordable-free milestone demonstrates what can happen when safety isn’t simply something a team is asked to do. It becomes something team members expect from themselves and from one another.

Because at the end of every shift, the most important result isn’t measured only by what was produced or delivered.

It’s making sure every team member makes it home safely.

Nicholas Genesi, Yamaha Motor U.S.A. (YMUS)