# How Safety Drives Your Bottom Line and Why It Starts With You w/ Brian Fielkow

- Show: [The Manufacturing Executive](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-manufacturing-executive)
- Published: 2026-09-01
- Length: 34m
- Episode: 325
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-manufacturing-executive/2026-09-01-how-safety-drives-your-bottom-line-and-why-it-starts-with-you-w-brian-fielkow
- Listen: https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-manufacturing-executive#episode-01a034cd-51e4-71d1-b66e-b6bd729fce45

## Summary

Brian Fielkow, former CEO of JetCo Delivery and author of 'Making Safety Happen', argues that safety must be a core value rather than a priority or compliance function. He explains that safety failures cost five times more than insurance claims due to hidden costs like downtime and reputation damage. Fielkow illustrates how Alcoa CEO Paul O'Neill used safety metrics to drive operational excellence and how JetCo leveraged frontline driver committees to improve performance. He also advocates for 'just culture' over progressive discipline to build trust and distinguish between honest mistakes and reckless behavior.

## Chapters

- [0:38](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-manufacturing-executive/2026-09-01-how-safety-drives-your-bottom-line-and-why-it-starts-with-you-w-brian-fielkow#t=38) Introduction: Brian Fielkow and Making Safety Happen
- [6:08](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-manufacturing-executive/2026-09-01-how-safety-drives-your-bottom-line-and-why-it-starts-with-you-w-brian-fielkow#t=368) Safety as a Core Value vs. Priority and Compliance
- [10:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-manufacturing-executive/2026-09-01-how-safety-drives-your-bottom-line-and-why-it-starts-with-you-w-brian-fielkow#t=600) The True Cost of Safety Failures
- [12:22](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-manufacturing-executive/2026-09-01-how-safety-drives-your-bottom-line-and-why-it-starts-with-you-w-brian-fielkow#t=742) Leadership's Role and the Alcoa Example
- [19:57](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-manufacturing-executive/2026-09-01-how-safety-drives-your-bottom-line-and-why-it-starts-with-you-w-brian-fielkow#t=1197) Harnessing Frontline Leaders at JetCo
- [23:14](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-manufacturing-executive/2026-09-01-how-safety-drives-your-bottom-line-and-why-it-starts-with-you-w-brian-fielkow#t=1394) Marketing Safety Internally with Branding
- [25:36](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-manufacturing-executive/2026-09-01-how-safety-drives-your-bottom-line-and-why-it-starts-with-you-w-brian-fielkow#t=1536) Just Culture vs. Progressive Discipline
- [31:23](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-manufacturing-executive/2026-09-01-how-safety-drives-your-bottom-line-and-why-it-starts-with-you-w-brian-fielkow#t=1883) Roadmap for Safety and Operational Excellence

## Topics

- [Leadership, teams & culture](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/leadership-and-culture)
- [Quality & yield](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/quality-and-yield)
- [Marketing & brand](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/marketing-and-brand)

## Most relevant to

established companies

## Mentioned

- JetCo Delivery (company)
- Alcoa (company)
- Waste Management (company)
- Making Safety Happen (product)
- Gorilla 76 (company)
- Industrial Marketing Summit (other)
- National Transportation Safety Board (company)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [Creating a Strong Safety Culture with Joe Geng](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/manufacturing-happy-hour/2020-01-20-creating-a-strong-safety-culture-with-joe-geng) (Manufacturing Happy Hour)
- [028 - "How Much Does Poor Quality Cost?" with H. James Harrington](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/lets-combinate/2022-04-13-028-how-much-does-poor-quality-cost-with-h-james-harrington) (Let's Combinate)
- [Building a Culture of Quality](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2022-05-20-building-a-culture-of-quality) (Global Medical Device Podcast)
- [Identifying Cost Savings That Save Jobs with Josh Fox](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/manufacturing-happy-hour/2020-04-14-identifying-cost-savings-that-save-jobs-with-josh-fox) (Manufacturing Happy Hour)
- [Flying Blind with Peter Robison](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2022-01-11-flying-blind-with-peter-robison) (Oxide and Friends)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-manufacturing-executive/2026-09-01-how-safety-drives-your-bottom-line-and-why-it-starts-with-you-w-brian-fielkow. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to The Manufacturing Executive.