Amy Chi

2020 STEP Ahead Honoree

Environmental Health & Safety Manager
Ball Corporation

I enjoy working in manufacturing because we are making products you can see and touch. I can learn the process from start to finish and contribute to making it better and even safer for our teams. I love that this has a positive impact inside and outside our plant!

Amy has made a lasting impact at Ball Metal Beverage Packaging by continuously encouraging and enforcing the company’s most important value—safety. Always one to challenge the norm, Amy has elevated the plant’s safety culture to new levels through her relentless pursuit of continuous improvement. For instance, she conducted risk assessments of all high-speed production equipment in the plant, which contributed to changes in personal protection equipment including shoes, gloves, chaps and cut-resistant sleeves. In addition, from 2016-2018, the Tampa facility’s number of hours worked per injury dropped 2.6 to 0, and the number of recordable incidents went from 4 to 0. Thanks to Amy’s leadership, the plant went from having the worst safety record in the division to celebrating one year without a lost time accident.

Amy holds the philosophy that instead of concentrating on eliminating accidents, people should work together to eliminate unsafe acts, behaviors and conditions. She encourages others to take part in improving Ball’s safety culture by collaborating to solve problems, breaking down boundaries and creating new relationships.

Amy freely donates her time to help other professionals acclimate to a high-speed manufacturing plant environment. She’s always available to women within the Tampa plant, and those outside the plant who are interested in becoming part of the Tampa team. Amy has become the company’s face of safety and sustainability.

Sustainability is also a passion of Amy’s, both environmentally and socially. She works with Metropolitan Ministries to conduct an annual community new shoe drive to ensure that local children have shoes for schools and home. In 2019 alone, her leadership led to almost 200 new pairs of shoes for children. Amy has also led the plant’s canned food drive since her arrival. With her guidance, Ball has collected 12,500 pounds of canned food.