With more than 140,000 steam boilers in operation worldwide, Miura has never had a pressure vessel explosion resulting in casualty. The company’s focus on safety did not stop with product design performance, however. Shortly after opening its U.S. manufacturing facility in Rockmart, Ga., in 2009, Miura set out to achieve the distinction of becoming the safest workplace in the steam boiler industry.

That objective was recently recognized as the company’s manufacturing facility earned OSHA Safety & Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP) certification.

The SHARP designation is awarded to those businesses that have used OSHA's On-Site Consultation Program services and operate exemplary safety and health programs. SHARP recognizes companies with fewer than 250 employees at the site (and fewer than 500 US employees) that enter this elective program and achieve an outstanding injury and illness prevention rating. A SHARP designation requires complete dedication from all areas of a company and all levels of employees, as well as an investment in the necessary resources.

The SHARP designation is awarded to businesses that have used OSHA's On-Site Consultation Program services and operate “exemplary safety and health programs.” SHARP recognizes companies with fewer than 250 employees at the site (and fewer than 500 employees in the United Sates) that enter the elective program and achieve an outstanding injury and illness prevention rating.

Earning the SHARP designation required that Miura go through an exhaustive review of procedures and process while having all employees participate in weeks of safety training performed at the beginning of the workday, with a new monthly topic introduced to all employees, including office staff. Each department within Miura also held five minute Safety Huddles at the beginning of the shift and upon returning from lunch. Each member of the department was responsible for addressing a certain topic for each meeting. These huddles met each workday to get the employee’s mind on practicing safe work habits. Companies that earn the OSHA SHARP designation must also have injury and illness rates below the national average.

SHARP status puts Miura in an elite group of small businesses that maintain exemplary safety and health programs, says the company. It also grants Miura an exemption from OSHA-programmed inspections for up to two years and subsequent renewal for up to three years.

Miura’s “safer-by-design” engineering, combined with its boiler geometry, means that catastrophic vessel failure is practically impossible and day-to-day safety issues related to installation, operation and maintenance are minimized.