“Let me ask you, do you forget to put on a shirt in the morning? Can you make earplugs part of your dress code? Leave a pair in your car, keep a pair at the office, hang some from your hard hat—whatever you need to do.”
 
When John Eapen was put in charge of safety 25 years ago at American & Efird LLC (A&E), the international thread manufacturing company, that’s the advice he gave to one employee who continually left his ear plugs at home.
 
Eapen committed there and then to make safety as ...