Can personal safety "golden rules" or life-saving rules be applied to process safety? #processsafety #humanfactors #safety #oilandgas #safetyleadership
Kenny McPhail
2mo
Personal safety lifesavers are essential in many high-risk activities. However, their effectiveness depends on how well they are communicated and ingrained into daily practices. During a meeting a group of service providers were asked if they were familiar with their client’s lifesavers. Surprisingly, only 50% had heard of them, and of those, only half understood their purpose. When asked why, the most common response was that these lifesavers were often perceived as mere 'themes' or 'posters,' without proper induction or integration into their work routines. The client CEO once stated, 'I can’t understand why we’re providing the tools to enhance safety (one of these was the lifesavers), but we still have fatalities.' This underscores a critical issue: simply providing safety tools isn’t enough. As demonstrated earlier, initiatives like lifesavers must be embedded and thoroughly understood across the entire organization and its service providers. Furthermore, managers must ensure these initiatives are properly implemented and this should be demonstrable at the executive level—or they must be held accountable for any oversights or omissions. Unfortunately, in one instance, this was not the case.
Gladstone Samuel
2mo
A couple of challenges we faced while creating the "Golden Rules" in a fertilizer complex is as follows: Disjointed Rules: Avoid creating rules that are not integrated with existing safety management systems, procedures, or workflows. We ensured that the rules complement and enhance current practices. Conflict with Other Procedures: It is important to ensure that the new rules do not conflict with or undermine existing procedures and safety measures.
Mario S.
2mo
Its been my experience that 'Golden rules' whilst good in theory can result in investigator bias and worker targeting during investigation if the culture is not right ('Us and 'Them' culture). This results in the organisation not focusing on the latent issues present. Then similar incidents occur again and again. Its tempting to over simplify things by introducing the next annual safety initiative like golden rules etc. with all the bells and whistles. Instead there needs to be more focus on effective risk management, communication and consultation, clear processes, effective training, supervision and critical control assurance. These remain key as every major incident investigation has shown. Safety industry seems to be drowning in paper and processes. More process and paper won't 'cover your ass' or prevent incidents. Keep it simple, make sure people understand, and make sure its working.
Karl Rich
2mo
Very little or no evidence that adherence to BBS based golden rules correlates with process safety outcomes. On the contrary, focus on BBS outcomes and metrics detracts/distracts from process safety q.v. DWH/Macondo. Many elements associated with process safety require more abstract thought and are less observable - keeping it in the pipe! There are also interesting contradictions that arise. Golden rule - always wear gloves. Maintenance on intricate electrical components necessary for process safety means gloves prevent or interfere with fine motor control necessary for task completion.
George Petrie
2mo
I think some organisations already think they do but never really seen them being effective even for occupational safety. They only work when there is a clear "owner" of the golden rule and aligns with the management system.
Make Process Safety Plausible
2moThe golden rules around process safety practices, needs: - Leadership commitment - Competence mapping towards Safety Critical Tasks - Culture where process safety practices are followed and risk is managed Leadership: The conduct of operations, i.e. Safe Operations or No operations, needs to be the message. The Operation Duty holders need to be influenced to: - challenge the Green, and capitalize measures on the Red. - seek about Process safety targets as much as production targets - walk the talk. Competence: Statistically, around 51% of Tier-1 incidents is during Operations and the remaining is due to Mechanical Integrity and Design inadequacies (ref. EPSC). Competence mapping across Safety Critical tasks, and competency assurance management across project lifecycle is needed to bring about an error tolerant operations. Thanks