Game changing safety performance

By Iain Mackay

Petrotechnics’ EVP Ian Mackay explains how integrated processes and technologies are changing frontline working effectiveness, delivering tangible efficiency benefits with improved safety performance as a byproduct.

While billions of dollars are invested in technologies to optimise how work is planned and how production is achieved, there is currently very little investment in technology that assists frontline workers to execute the work in an efficient, consistent, compliant and safe manner.

Organisations working in hazardous industries now realise that "work execution", the space where identified, planned and scheduled work is performed, contains a high proportion of the inefficiencies and safety concerns that increase cost and risk. Many organisations rely on paper processes to manage frontline work. Much of the work is unplanned, reacting to local needs and changing priorities rather than the overall plan; studies show that in some industries less than 40% of the plan is achieved at the worksite in the period intended. To compound this, little governance is available at the corporate level to provide assurance that operations and maintenance work is conducted in a safe and compliant manner, be that corporate or regulator requirements.

This dynamic environment presents challenges to frontline workers and supervisors; where are the work instructions associated with the job? What lessons have previously been learned? What pre-work is needed prior to commencement and what are the risks to the plant and personnel?

Ensuring workers consistently apply best practices - whether these are rules,

regulations, processes or lessons learned, not only provides safety and assurance benefits but also delivers efficiency gains: better ways of working and improving the corporate knowledge base and shorter execution time.

Managing behaviours on industrial sites presents all operations with a challenge; how to build, deliver, develop and exercise best-practice amongst the frontline personnel.

Driving from policy can lead to a tick box response; if policy is too vague then everyone complies, if policy is too prescriptive many organisations simply cannot comply with all the rules in the prescriptive way they have been written, and the policy's impact erodes. Supporting processes with a system removes opportunities to subvert the process.

This "systematised" assurance can be achieved in a shorter timeframe than building workforce competence; process rigour is the quickest way of gaining control in areas where workforce competency and behaviours are a critical link in the execution of work.

Instilling proactive behaviours in the workforce is highly dependent on people, but by using the framework of a process embodied in a system it is possible to engage the people in a new approach, with a much greater degree of overall control, providing a more solid foundation from which to address behaviours and competency.

Many organisations are now realising the benefits of evolving paper systems, through "e-permitting", to integrated safe systems of work (ISSOW) to provide clear, robust and consistent ways for frontline staff to plan and control work on the site safely and efficiently.

Petrotechnics' experience in delivering work execution solutions to 50,000 users in 20 countries demonstrates it's ability to deliver compliant, best-practice solutions built on high reliability software into diverse environments with minimal workforce management of change.

Petrotechnics' Sentinel PRO fundamentally shifts the approach to planning and integration of all aspects of frontline work to give real control and assurance of work activities. Sentinel PRO overcomes the challenges presented by the unstructured and dynamic nature of operations, maintenance and associated activity through a unified business process, integrating permit to work, risk assessment and isolation management, delivering it to the frontline user in an intuitive graphical real-time software tool.

Companies realise the hard benefits immediately following implementation, increasing achievement of planned work, a decrease in unplanned activities, delivering better maintenance of equipment and more effective utilisation of personnel. Payback has been repeatedly demonstrated within 12 months of implementation. In addition, many executives recognise the soft benefits; improved governance and assurance of hazardous sites, auditable records of work performed, clear oversight of plant condition, high visibility on work status and the ability to review individuals' work histories.

Iain Mackay is Executive Vice President of Petrotechnics Ltd, the market leading provider of frontline activity performance solutions for hazardous industries. Mackay is the driving force behind Petrotechnics' unrivalled track record in delivering tangible efficiency and safety benefits to its extensive global client base.