“People are actually very reliable, but there are many opportunities for error in the course of a day’s work, and when handling hazardous materials, we can tolerate only very low error rates (and equipment failure rates), lower than it may be possible to achieve.
If management believes safety is all about workers behaving as they have been trained, then we should be able to save thousands of dollars by ordering keyboards with no “delete” button. After all, if we expect workers to make no errors, mistakes, or violations in executing their jobs, we should have the exact expectations within
The value of a Root Cause Analysis and Corrective Action Plan process to a business If the critique process is effective and an organization successfully determines why the event occurred, the appropriate corrective action can be achieved. The avoided cost associated with recurrence and improvement in performance is the organization’s dividend.
For those who live within the process safety bubble, you know all about the MOC “requirements” from OSHA and EPA process safety standards. However, an MOC program is vital to any formal Safety Management System. And you would be correct to say “OSHA (nor EPA) does not require one outside a PSM/RMP standards. But after
First, I am not fully bought into the “psychological safety” concept. For me, it is just how we should manage safety, so I am not a “labels” kind of safety pro. However, I get a lot of questions about HOP and Psychological Safety, and the one place we could begin to utilize these approaches is
Most organizations espouse a variety of values, some of which are intrinsically contradictory, so new employees must figure out for themselves what is really rewarded – customer satisfaction, productivity, safety, minimizing costs, or maximizing returns to the investors. Only by observing actual promotions and performance reviews can newcomers figure out what the underlying assumptions are
WOW, my article earlier this week on the flaws of the TRIR formula stirred a passionate debate among several SAFTENG members/clients/friends. But from that debate, they now can see what their future safety metrics could look like. I always get the following response (and it is a very legitimate response)… If measuring the TRIR and
As 2023 draws to an end, businesses across this great nation will be tallying their injury rates for bragging rights compared to other business locations, competitors, etc. It is a 50+ year tradition for many of these businesses. However, I wonder if this tradition would continue if they genuinely understood how flawed their calculation is.
If we wish to find out why accidents occurred and find ways of preventing them from happening again, we need a sympathetic attitude towards people who have committed so-called violations, have made slips, had lapses of attention, or not learnt what their training was supposed to teach them. It is a small price and is
If a facility spends hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars on paint the month before an audit… we may be doing “it” wrong! Early in my career, I sat in my weekly staff meeting when the plant manager announced our corporate safety and health audit. As in most organizations, these are “big deals”. A
In today’s safety arena, metrics still rage on. I believe in metrics; everything should be DEFINED and QUANTIFIED in safety, and “performance metrics” are no different. Advanced SMSs utilize “leading indicators” rather than “lagging indicators” such as injury rates, WC $s, etc. This is a significant advancement in safety – measuring the activities (and their
The Safety Manager is responsible for developing, implementing, operating, and continuously improving the organization’s SMS. They should act as a focal point for safety in the organization. Typically, the Safety Manager is required to be competent and responsible for the following:
