Page 147 - Serious Incident Prevention How to Achieve and Sustain Accident-Free Operations in Your Plant or Company

CH11pp111-125 4/10/02 12:51 PM Page 124

124 Serious Incident Prevention

Types of Measurement and
Feedback Systems

Any list of critical work necessary to sustain a safe workplace typically
includes tasks that must be executed at varying frequencies. Target fre-
quencies may range from a time span of hourly (i.e., instrument readings)
to a span of several years between task performance (i.e., pressure testing
or “smart-pigging” a pipeline system). The high number of tasks involved
and the varying frequencies for execution can result in a system requiring
effective organization for successful administration. A system of documen-
tation, as illustrated by the tables and figures in this chapter, is useful in en-
suring required tasks are effectively scheduled and executed. The system
lends itself to providing effective measurement and feedback in the form of
graphs and charts to individuals and teams accountable for performance.
Performance monitoring for some types of work can be best accom-
plished through an audit process. Audits are an appropriate tool, particularly
when knowledge-based judgment is required to quantify the level of per-
formance. Audits are an excellent tool for measuring the level of policy de-
ployment throughout an organization—for example, monitoring the level of
compliance to energy isolation, hot work, or management of change stan-
dards. The focus of audits should be on ferreting out improvement oppor-
tunities and identifying other opportunities for positively reinforcing
individuals and teams. When deficiencies are identified, emphasis must be
on determining root causes and implementing timely corrective actions.
Status reporting to management can also be an effective measurement
and feedback tool. Progress reports on safety related initiatives promote
self-measurement with a direct feedback loop to the performer.
Management reviews of progress on key initiatives provide an appropriate
“Check” step to help ensure plans are moving toward implementation.

Safety Performance Indexing

A combination of different types of measurement and feedback sys-
tems, e.g., charts, audits, and status reports, will typically be needed to pro-
vide the performance monitoring and the feedback systems required to
drive improvements. However, many organizations have found value in de-
veloping a single measure, or at least a limited number of measures, to re-
flect how the organization is progressing in achieving its safety objectives.
A safety performance index utilizing a matrix that weights key performance
indicators is a simple but very powerful technique that meets these needs.
Safety performance indexing is discussed in detail in Chapter 12.