Safety Management System

We hear and see this all the time.  There are variations to this mantra, but we all know what they mean.  So I ask, can a business ever live up to its mantra, “Safety is #1”? Some companies have softened their approach and will say, “The safety of our employees is our #1 priority”.  We…...

As I have stated, our Safety Management System (SMS) revolves around four (4) fundamental elements: 1) Hazard Identification 2) Analysing those identified hazards using recognized methodologies 3) Assessing the risk(s) those hazards pose to people, businesses, and the environment 4) Mitigating those risks down to a tolerable level using the Hierarchy of Controls With that…...

It is well established that in organizations where a formal and structured SMS approach to managing safety failed, the #1 cause of the failure was the lack of leadership and commitment from the most senior management personnel.  Often these individuals lack experience working within a formal SMS structure and have never been taught or even…...

It has become fashionable to claim that human error is implicated in 80-90 percent of all major accidents. While probably close to the truth, this statement adds very little to our understanding of how and why organizational accidents happen. In the first place, it could hardly be otherwise, given the range of human involvement in…...

Absolutely they can.  In fact, this is the case in most businesses where we get called to assist with an accident investigation.  These are not SAFTENG clients, but rather a 1-off project to lead the investigation with a referral from a safety agency or a friend of a friend of a friend kind of arrangement. …...

For something so many in our profession claim to not exist, it is amazing how five (5) dictionaries officially define it. There are even degrees one can get on the topic, and much research has been done on a topic that is supposedly not at play in an organization’s safety efforts.  I think most of…...

Maybe you’ve heard about the Fukushima water release plan.  Or maybe you heard something about the drinking water debacle in Flint, MI.  Or maybe you’re an emergency responder and are being bombarded about the Alcohol Film-Forming Foams (AFFF) you were exposed that had the “forever chemicals”. Or maybe you have a home with a basement…...

The assessment checklist below was developed by Dr. James Reason and presented at the 2000 Safety Conference.  In Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents,  Dr. Reason argues that three (3) elements are vital for driving a company’s safety performance, all of them the purview of top managers: commitment, competence and cognizance The three Cs. But…...

“Despite efforts to improve safety, several hundred accidents happen every year, and most such crashes are blamed on human error or outdated signaling equipment.” Active Failures vs. Latent Organizational Failures These conflicts are always in the spotlight after tragedies. It took me many years working for some great leaders who always challenged me to look…...

The establishment of a positive culture of safety within an organization is dependent on the following:… Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here...

I came across these nine bullets from an SMS for a UK government agency.  It may be the best-summarized listing of the behaviors and language we should see from the top executives within our organizations.  I realize that one of the references talks about “prioritizing safety”; and although I am not a fan of that…...

We hear a lot about our biases showing up in many SMS elements and how these biases hamper the SMS and mislead us.  But not all biases can be a bad thing.  One element where our biases shine brightly is in the Causal Analysis of accidents.  For decades now, we have been told over and…...