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The images of the explosions at the Chernobyl reactor or the Piper Alpha oil platform, for instance, are still ubiquitous today. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s easy to see that accidents of this scale are most often the product of procedural and organisational failures, rather than carelessness on the part of individuals.
In the aftermath of last century’s major incidents, psychologists set about creating models to explain systemic flaws and establish accident causation. The best-known of these is James Reason’s Swiss Cheese Model, which states that a series of barriers prevents hazards from causing serious damage to workers and assets.
However, each layer contains unintended “holes” (much like a slice of Swiss cheese). It’s usually rare that these holes line up with one another, but an accident is sure to follow when they do. Avoiding this alignment is one of the key goals of a process safety framework.
The stakes are high
Process safety differs from occupational safety in that it seeks to prevent catastrophic events and near misses, rather than minimising individual workplace injuries. According to the definition set out by the Centre for Chemical Process Safety, process safety deals with “the prevention and control of incidents that have the potential to release hazardous materials or energy”. These kinds of events may lead to fires and toxic chemical releases, which in turn result in serious injuries and environmental harm.
With stakes this high, companies have been eager to implement comprehensive safety procedures. However, the prevention of major incidents must not come at the expense of more routine forms of maintenance. In 2010, the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) warned that a focus on avoiding serious accidents had led some offshore operators to neglect general platform maintenance, leading to the visible corrosion of infrastructure.
Following a series of inspections made between July 2007 and March 2010, the HSE found that the condition of installations ranged widely from good to poor in terms of non-safety-critical components. While the executive commended operators’ commitment to preventing failures that could lead to major incidents, it emphasised that maintaining the general fabric of platforms is also essential for workers’ personal safety.
According to Matt Powell-Howard, head of strategy at the National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health, companies must strike a careful balance between preventing more routine personnel injuries and major incidents. To achieve this harmony, it’s important that a safety culture is embedded across all levels of an organisation – and that workers feel empowered to report slight corrosion as well as major procedural oversights.
Automatic response
“You want to have systems in place, and training and competencies in place, so that safety flashes through the brains of all workers when decisions are being made,” he said. “There must be a deliberate process in place where personnel consider the possible outcomes of their actions.”
Today’s safety professionals are often heard extolling the virtues of so-called “visible felt” leadership. Under this approach, management’s actions lead people at all levels to both feel and understand their leaders’ high standards. Managers in this mode will make sure that staff know that safety is not just about appeasing shareholders or preventing costly damages – but about protecting the health and safety of all workers.
At large industrial sites, a significant percentage of a workforce will inevitably be made up of contractors, many of whom may only be present for a short time. So visible felt leadership and an embedded safety culture are paramount in ensuring that proper procedures are adhered to.
“Contractors can outnumber staff massively, so it’s important that your expectations of them are equally high,” said Powell-Howard.
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.