Industrial Safety Metrics Are Improving. Serious Harm Isn’t Artwork

Resilient Supply Chain — How Leaders Keep Business Moving

Resilient Supply Chain is for supply chain, operations, procurement and technology leaders who need practical ways to manage disruption, reduce risk and keep business moving.

Each Monday, technology and sustainability analyst, keynote speaker and former SAP Global VP Tom Raftery speaks with the executives, operators, founders and innovators redesigning how goods, information and decisions move through global supply chains.

These are candid conversations about what works in practice—not polished PR narratives or vague predictions. Guests explain how they are responding to supplier failures, geopolitical shocks, volatile costs, capacity constraints, changing regulations and rising pressure to improve both performance and sustainability.

The podcast examines:
Faster planning and decision-making under uncertainty
Supplier risk, sourcing strategy and business continuity
AI, automation, visibility and operational intelligence
Warehousing, logistics and fulfilment performance
Scope 3 emissions, circularity and responsible sourcing
The systems, incentives and organisational changes needed to turn data into action

The central question is simple: what helps a supply chain withstand disruption, adapt quickly and continue serving the business?

New episodes are published every Monday at 7am CET. Resilient Supply Chain+ subscribers also receive bonus analysis, highlights and briefings on emerging industry trends.

Follow Resilient Supply Chain for practical lessons from the people solving real operational problems—and building supply chains that perform when conditions do not go to plan.

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Resilient Supply Chain — How Leaders Keep Business Moving

Industrial Safety Metrics Are Improving. Serious Harm Isn’t

March 09, 2026 • Tom Raftery • Season 2 • Episode 110

0:00 | 39:57

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If your safety metrics are improving, are your people actually safer? Or are you just getting better at measuring the wrong things?

In this episode of the Resilient Supply Chain Podcast, I’m joined by John Dony, CEO and co-founder of the What Works Institute, and Mike Swain, Technical Enablement Manager at Evotix, to unpack a stubborn problem hiding in plain sight: why serious injuries and fatalities remain frustratingly hard to reduce, even as traditional safety metrics appear to improve. In a world of tighter regulation, more fragile operating models, and rising scrutiny across global supply chains, this is a resilience issue, a risk issue, and very much a leadership issue.

We dig into why lagging indicators can create a false sense of control, and why better reporting can actually be a sign that the truth is finally surfacing. You’ll hear how Mike saw incident reporting jump by 800% after better systems were introduced, and why that was good news, not bad. We also break down why the classic safety triangle often fails to predict serious harm, especially in complex supply chains shaped by contractors, seasonal labour, handoffs, and fragmented accountability.

We also explore where AI, data, visibility, and governance genuinely add value, and where hype still outruns reality. You might be surprised to learn that one of the sharpest lines in the episode is John’s view that if organisations want AI to work, they need a time machine to go back and get their data right first.

🎙️ Listen now to hear how John Dony, What Works Institute, and Evotix are rethinking supply chain resilience, safety, risk, and data from the ground up.

If disruption hit tomorrow, would you know where your supply chain was most exposed? In 15 minutes my free scorecard helps you assess 27 resilience statements, calculate your score, and turn the result into three priorities and a 30 day action plan. You can download the scorecard free at tomraftery.com/scorecard.

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