Are you hesitant to introduce a safety knife policy in your workplace for fear of experiencing complaints and resistance from your employees?

Imagine being able to introduce a program that makes positive changes that are accepted with enthusiasm, input and support.

Resistance to change within an organisation can result in low employee morale, loss of productivity and can cause irreparable harm to the company’s bottom line. Not having a safety knife policy in place can lead to higher rates of cut injuries and significant medical costs to your company.

At MARTOR we often hear from customers that their employees don’t like safety knives, they don’t work, they are too hard to use and, ‘I’ve been using this knife for years and never cut myself.’

It is often the case that they just don’t want to change from what is familiar to them. We know that change is uncomfortable and requires new ways of thinking. Your employees are more than likely not fearing the change but fearing the unknown and what it will mean for them.

Implementing changes in any workplace system takes time and implementing a safety knife policy is no different. It is not as simple as just buying any old knife, handing it over and expecting your workers to accept it. A successful safety knife program can take several months to implement and should be designed to ensure the company, team leaders and employees are well equipped with not only the proper cutting tools but more importantly with the proper understanding of how to use the tools.

When done correctly a knife safety program is the ultimate investment a company can make in workplace safety. Continuing reading to find out how two of our customers, both leading international companies in their industry, successfully introduced change by introducing a safety knife policy.


CASE STUDY # 1

Working alongside MARTOR a major international confectionery company implemented a safety knife policy across eight manufacturing plants in Australia and New Zealand. An initial audit which included consultations and risk assessments identified that exposed blade knives were being used at all facilities resulting in 60 cut injuries over a 4-year period.

To reduce the rate of injuries and the expense to the company in the long term, it was determined that they needed to implement new policies to reduce these rates. In consultation with MARTOR the following steps were put in place:

  • Implemented a range of standardized cutting tools across all sites
  • Implemented a one safety knife supplier policy (MARTOR)
  • Created an employee safety knife policy
  • Introduced a knife amnesty where employees could surrender unapproved knives
  • Provided training and competency sessions
  • Introduced a safety knife register to track safety knives

With these steps in place, this one company managed to reduce incidents involving cutting tools by 92% across the board in less than 12 months and in the following 12 months they went on to eliminate cut injuries altogether by increasing their employee’s safety knife capabilities, improving controls and awareness of safety knives and safety knife maintenance.


CASE STUDY # 2

MARTOR has also been able to assist a global packaging company where, in a 12-month period, hand injuries were the single greatest injury reported across all sites. Most of the injuries were lacerations as a result of using hand-held knives.

Working with MARTOR, the packaging company introduced a group-wide policy on box cutters and hand held knives. By referencing MARTOR’s safety levels they clearly categorised all knives on their sites into levels of safety and over the next 12 months, they worked to remove all knives that were deemed as being outside these levels and therefore, unsafe.

In the 12 months following the introduction of MARTOR safety knives, this company reported back to us that they had ZERO recorded lacerations. ZERO!

If you want to benefit from introducing MARTOR safety knives and cutters to your workplace and successfully introduce safety knives to your workplace contact us now!

We offer an initial free sample to get you started, simply complete our contact form found here

Ph: 61 3 5940 4476

Email: [email protected]