Page 99 - Hydrocarbon Exploration and Production Second Edition

86 Safety Management Systems

work. A near hit (often called a near miss) is an incident which causes no injury,
but had the potential to do so (e.g. a falling object hitting the ground, but
missing personnel). An example of an unsafe act would be a poorly secured ladder,
where no incident occurs, but which potentially could have been the cause of an
incident.
The safety triangle shows that there are many orders of magnitude more unsafe
acts than LTIs and fatalities. A combination of unsafe acts often results in a fatality.
Addressing safety in industry should begin with the base of the triangle; trying to
eliminate the unsafe acts. This is simple to do, in theory, since most of the unsafe
acts arise from carelessness or failure to follow procedures. In practice, reducing the
number of unsafe acts requires personal commitment and a safety culture.

5.2. Safety Management Systems
The UK Government enquiry into the Piper Alpha disaster in the North Sea in
1988 had a significant impact on working practices and equipment and has helped
to improve offshore safety around the world. One result has been the development
of a safety management system (SMS) which is a method of integrating work practices,
and is a form of quality management system. Major oil companies have each
developed their own specific SMS, to suit local environments and modes of
operation, but the SMS typically addresses the following areas (recommended by the
Cullen Enquiry into the Piper Alpha disaster)

organisational structure
management personnel standards
safety assessment
design procedures
procedures for operations, maintenance, modifications and emergencies
management of safety by contractors in respect of their work
the involvement of the workforce in safety
accident and incident reporting, investigation and follow-up
monitoring and auditing the operation of the system
systematic reappraisal of the system.

It is important that the SMS is not a stand-alone system, but that it is integrated
into the working methods of a company. Some of the above elements of an SMS
will be discussed.
Auditing the operation of a system may be done by an external audit team
composed of qualified people from within or outside the operating company.
However, involvement of the workforce in the audit will improve the level of
information, assist with gaining commitment and make the implementation of
recommendations easier. This is consistent with the commitment of employees
mentioned in Section 5.1.
Contractors perform much of the operational work on behalf of the oil company,
because they can supply the specialist skills required. Contractor teams may range from