Availability Workbench

Creating a Safe Work

Environment
Why can’t we create and sustain superior safety performance in most industries? The
answer in my opinion is quite simple. We as leaders treat safety as a special event or
an additional responsibility for our employees. We as leaders have not made safety a
part of our Work Culture by communicating a clear vision and clarify
clarifying
ing our safety
expectations. We as leaders have failed to define specific roles and responsibilities
related to safety performance for all levels of the organization. We have not created
and communicated a system of accountability. We have failed to make and a keep our
commitment to safety or in other words, we fail to ensure human reliability and take
action when there is a deviation to our safety performance expectations.

For years, organizations throughout the United States have spent billions of dollars
searching
earching for the silver bullet that can be shot into their business to create an accident
free work environment. Some organizations opt to spend their dollars in in-search of the
cookbook remedy that, if followed will allow managers and first line supervisors to re-
create that illusive accident free work environment by following step
step--by-step
instructions. During the past ten plus years, efforts have been made to involve
employees in the improvement of safety performance by observing the specific
behaviors of fellow
ellow employees that can lead to safe or unsafe work practices. This
information is communicated and documented. The documented information is used to
create a database of safe and unsafe behaviors. The database of information can be
used in a problem solving
ing process to identify specific employee behaviors that must be
modified or identify safety improvements related to equipment and or procedures that
can be implemented to remove unsafe behaviors.

I have experienced both the “Carrot” and the “Stick” methodology

methodology (positive and
negative reinforcement) related to safety performance. Good safety performance has
been recognized through financial payout, giving away safety products and celebrating
with award banquets. Poor safety performance has been met with loss of pay,
discipline up to and including termination of employment for some employees. Neither
positive nor negative consequences seemed to have a dramatic impact on improving
long-term
term safety performance. During the past 25 years in the power industry I have h
personally been exposed to at least 12 major safety initiatives. All 12 initiatives have
resulted in limited success. So why don’t these safety initiatives work? Why can’t we
create and sustain superior safety performance in most industries?

Assessment

What are your organization’s beliefs related to safety? Has the leadership of the
organization communicated a clear vision and expectations related to safety? Do you
have a clear understanding of how safety performance is measured? Does your
organization have a clear understanding of the consequences related to safety
performance, both the positive and negative? What are your roles and responsibilities
related to safety? What are the roles and responsibilities of the people who report to
you and do they understand and are they committed to these responsibilities? The
answers to these questions may surprise you if the responses to these questions are
grouped by levels in your organization.

Most organizations have completed several forms of surveys and assessments over the
past several decades. Some businesses have developed safety-training programs
utilizing this information. Others have communicated mandates for improvements
based on information obtained from these data rich, information poor findings. Once
again the results of both the training programs and corporate mandates yield modest,
short-term results at best.

So how is the safety performance in your organization? To gain a true understanding of

where you are as an organization related to the safety continuum, you must strap on
your PPE and enter the work environment, illustrated here by Reliability Management
Group’s (RMG) Work Management Wheel.
EARLY WORK IDENTIFICATION WILL INCREASE SAFETY

As you wander through your facility, pay close attention to the basics. What is the
overall condition of your plant? Is the environment clean and well lit? Are spills and
leaks evident? Take note of repair tags or caution tape that may be found. How long
has this condition existed? Be sure to visit your control centers and gather the data
that may be present and document dates. Have all the deviations from your safety
expectation been captured as identified work? What priority has been assigned to this
type of work? Once you have verified that unsafe work has been identified it’s time to
visit your site Planning person(s).

PROPER JOB PLANNING WILL INCREASE SAFETY

Ask your planning group to show you the priority work you have identified. Ask your
planning group to show you the job plan on how this work will be accomplished. The
first step in a good job plan starts with a clear, concise description of the work to be
accomplished. A job plan will identify all hazards associated with completing the
desired task. Lock-out/Tag-out procedures will be included in the job plan. Proper PPE
required to perform the work will be identified. Special tools and equipment will be
noted. Multi-craft coordination will be communicated. The correct parts and materials
will be verified and staged prior to the start of work. The correct crew size and number
of hours to complete the job safely are also a requirement of a proper job plan. How
do your job plans compare to these expectations?

WORK SCHEDULING WILL INCREASE SAFETY

The most important step in the scheduling process is to adopt the discipline to only
schedule planned work. In review of the job planning process listed above, why would
any organization trying to create a safe work environment allow work to be scheduled
and assigned without a proper job plan? Most organizations have become experts in
emergency, reactive and just in time maintenance. Failure to schedule properly
planned jobs that identify the correct tools and equipment, coordinate multi-craft work
and insure proper equipment isolation that covers all work groups can and will lead to
accidents and injury.

How is work coordinated and scheduled in your organization?

WORK ACCOMPLISHMENT WILL INCREASE SAFETY

Clear, concise expectations of the work to be accomplished must be communicated

from site leadership and be understood by work groups prior to the start of all jobs.
Job plans must be reviewed so all safety issues related to the job can be discussed and
clarified with the workforce. Lock/Tag/Try procedures and all equipment isolation must
be reviewed prior to starting the job to insure a safe work environment at the job site.
The workforce must understand their roles and responsibilities related to safety such
as using the proper tools, equipment and wearing the proper PPE provided for the job.
Expectations for job status reporting must be communicated to avoid any conflicts with
multi-craft coordination. The expectation that good housekeeping is part of the work to
be accomplished should be communicated and understood by all employees.

Have you clearly communicated your expectations to your employees on accomplishing

work?

WORK DOCUMENTATION WILL INCREASE SAFETY

All safety problems or deviations from the job plan while accomplishing work should be
documented. A post review of the job will help identify unforeseen safety hazards that
were encountered and identify how the safety issues were addressed. A review and
documentation will also help identify special tools, equipment, parts or PPE that may
have been overlooked while planning the job. The type of repair that was performed
and the condition of the equipment when the job was completed should also be
captured and documented. What type of documentation and work history is available
to help improve safety at your facility?

WORK ANALYSIS AND MEASUREMENT WILL INCREASE SAFETY

The information gathered during work documentation is worthless in improving safety

unless the information is reviewed, problems are identified and improvement plans are
developed in a timely manner. The intent of analyzing and measuring safe and unsafe
work performance is to proactively address safety issues utilizing historical information
so future job plans can be improved. The analysis and measurement process can also
provide data to help an organization move from a reactive to proactive maintenance
philosophy, which will reduce emergency work. Superior safety performance will only
be realized and sustained through a continuous review and work process improvement.

CONCLUSION

We must get back to the basics. We must make safety an every day, common
occurrence. We must clearly define safety as a standard step in our daily Work
Management process. We must avoid the temptation of making safety a special event
and instead safety must become the way we work and our way of life.

Article submitted by: by Mike Rarrat is a Vice President of Business Development for
Reliability Management Group (RMG)

About the author:

Mike Rarrat is a Vice President of Business Development for Reliability Management
Group (RMG), a process and work management consulting firm based out of
Minneapolis, Minnesota. RMG specializes in delivering sustainable, bottom line results
for their clients through improvements in reliability, asset management and defect
elimination. While with RMG, Mike has worked in a variety of industries, including
electrical utilities, refining, chemical and petrochemical. Prior to joining RMG, Mike
worked in the Power Generation industry for 25 years, holding positions in Materials
Management, Operations, Maintenance and as Site Manager at MidAmerican Energy’s
Louisa Power Plant.

For more information or assistance in creating and implementing a safe work culture
please contact Reliability Management Group at 1-952-882-8122 or on the web at
www.rmgmpls.com

©2010 Reliabilityweb.com