Leonardo Yeovil site in the southwest of the UK is known as the ‘Home of British Helicopters,’ representing over a century of aerospace innovation. Since 1915, this facility has been at the forefront of aircraft manufacturing, evolving to become the UK’s only end-to-end rotary wing manufacturer. With more than 3,300 helicopters built and exported worldwide, the complexity of operations at the Yeovil site presents significant health, safety and environment (HSE) management challenges. The HSE function supports not only the vast manufacturing site but also off-site aircraft maintenance at Ministry of Defence (MoD) bases and international contractor activities, demanding a robust and integrated management system.
Challenges
In 2018, Leonardo set a clear objective to elevate their electronic health, safety and environment (HSE) management tool to meet the complex demands of its expanding operations. The business sought an advanced, integrated solution capable of supporting continual improvement in HSE performance and compliance. Key goals included enabling seamless data integration, establishing efficient processes for incident reporting, audits and change management, including management and employees at all levels and generating actionable intelligence to inform strategic decision-making. Following a rigorous RFQ process, Leonardo prioritized finding a unified platform that would enhance transparency, drive accountability and empower the full organization to proactively manage risk on a global scale.
Solution
Following a comprehensive evaluation, Leonardo selected Sphera as the optimal provider, citing its fully integrated approach, platform maturity and deep industry experience. In August 2021, the organization implemented several SpheraCloud software solutions:
- Incident Management and First Report Portal: To streamline and encourage event reporting.
- Actions Management: To ensure accountability and tracking of corrective and preventive measures.
- Audit Management: To digitize and optimize the auditing process.
Based on the immediate improvements realized, Leonardo expanded its Sphera footprint just months later by implementing Document Management and Management of Change (MoC). This replaced a manual, form based MoC process with a unified system that supports integrated workflows, centralized action management and knowledge sharing.
Results
The implementation of the Sphera Health and Safety Management platform delivered significant, measurable improvements across Leonardo’ HSE programs.
- Increased event reporting: The user-friendly First Report Portal led to a 141% increase in event reports in 2024 compared to 2020. This accessibility has empowered the entire workforce to report near misses and positive observations, fostering a proactive safety culture.
- Data-driven safety campaigns: Advanced data intelligence from the Incident Management Software enabled the HSE team to identify critical trends. For instance, analysis in early 2025 revealed that hand injuries constituted nearly 30% of all reported incidents. This insight drove a targeted hand safety campaign and improvements to personal protective equipment (PPE).
- Improved action management: The integrated Actions Management Software has embedded a culture of accountability. Standardized reporting and consistent tracking have led to a significant reduction of overdue actions from 540 to 204 (62%) over time.
- Digitized and efficient audits: The Audits Software transformed a paper-based process into a fully electronic system. This has generated considerable resource savings for the HSE Technical Team, allowing them to focus on proactive interventions rather than administrative tasks.
- Streamlined management of change: The Management of Change Software provided a single, centralized system that supports workflows and enables best-practice sharing, enhancing process efficiency and reducing risk.
Why this matters
Sphera has been effectively embedded within Leonardo, becoming a recognized and familiar tool that supports ongoing legal compliance and ISO 14001, 45001 and 50001 accreditations. The platform’s ease of use allows teams to focus on their core responsibilities, contributing directly to business growth and success.
Conclusion
The SpheraCloud platform is vital to fostering a culture of safety, accountability and proactive risk management at Leonardo. The successful capture and analysis of data across incident reporting, action management, audits and management of change provides a powerful foundation for continuous improvement. Sphera empowers Leonardo to not only meet its rigorous HSE obligations but also to drive operational excellence and reinforce its position as a leader in the aerospace industry.
“Sphera’s familiarity and ease of use allow our teams to focus on their core specialisms rather than administrative burdens. This operational efficiency is crucial, enabling us to direct our efforts toward gaining new contracts and maintaining business growth, secure in the knowledge that our compliance and risk management are robust.”
— Sally Dickinson, HSE Systems and Risk Manager at Leonardo
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