Enterprise Compressor Station marks 65 years with no lost time

Safety is a top priority for the team working at the Enterprise Compressor Station in Kansas, as it is for many teams across the massive ANR Pipeline system. But the Enterprise team’s 65-year record of zero lost time due to safety incidents proves that they walk the safety walk as much as they talk the safety talk.

Back in 1990, Enterprise celebrated its already remarkable 35^th anniversary of no employees missing work due to job-related injuries. At the time, the legacy impressed Bruce Hageman, then a new member of the team and now the manager of the Flint Hills Area. The Flint Hills Area is in the southwest region of the ANR system; it spans from the Oklahoma-Kansas border, through Kansas, into southwest Missouri. In his 30 years at Enterprise, Bruce has gained decades of insight into how exactly the team maintains its superb safety standards.

“It was evident to me, even within the first six months, that I was in a different culture than I had previously been in,” Bruce says. “The difference is that everyone on the team had a consistent, real intent to make sure another guy didn’t get hurt. It was never about only looking out for yourself; it’s about watching out for each other’s safety.”

Bruce also points to clear, proactive communication among team members as a major key for achieving 65 years of no lost time. Bruce’s coworkers over the years would always go out of their way to share their knowledge about specific pieces of equipment to minimize risks to their peers. “They would come up to you and say, ‘Hey, that thing has a tendency to do this, so you should be aware.’”

Similarly, the Enterprise team plans the safest ways to take on different tasks by sharing past experiences. Bruce notes, “When we sit down and discuss things about doing a project or doing a job, everybody pitches in about different things that they had seen over the years that might get you in trouble.”

The final piece of the puzzle of Enterprise’s stellar safety record, according to Bruce, is a culture of integrity. Given his 30 years at Enterprise, Bruce is at the point where everybody he had been initially working with has retired. But, even as the individuals on the team come and go, the shared values of integrity, respect and collaboration are passed along and remain as the core culture of the Enterprise team.