Page 199 - Serious Incident Prevention How to Achieve and Sustain Accident-Free Operations in Your Plant or Company

CH15pp159-189 4/10/02 12:51 PM Page 167

Applying the Process Model—A Case Study 167

The chemical handling department team plans to provide increased em-
phasis on the identification and evaluation of “red flag” conditions. In ad-
dition, the department has recently adopted a new goal for reducing
accidental releases of hazardous materials from a current average of about
100 pounds per month to a maximum of 10 pounds per month. The team
understands that “what gets measured gets done,” and it is planning to fa-
cilitate achievement of its goals for increasing the identification and report-
ing of “red flag” conditions and for reducing hazardous material releases by
adding these two additional elements to the safety performance matrix.
Figure 15-7 illustrates the team’s redesigned performance matrix that
includes the addition of “red-flag” reports and hazardous material releases.
The team has assigned a weighting of 10 percent to “red flag reports,” with
a minimum of three reports per month required to achieve a 100 percent
score. A weighting of 15 percent is assigned to the volume of hazardous ma-
terial releases. The team understands that the addition of these elements to
the performance matrix will enhance the team’s capability for identifying
and resolving potential problems before they lead to serious incidents and
will help drive significant reductions in hazardous material releases.
The team has also considered the addition of other performance indica-
tors to the matrix—audit scores, employee survey results, and recordable in-
jury rate are potential additions that have been discussed. The team
understands that the safety performance index is a flexible tool that can be
shaped as needed to help achieve and sustain a safe workplace.
The chemical handling department team understands the importance of
serious-incident prevention and its linkage to other company objectives,
e.g., customer satisfaction, financial performance, and company image. The
team’s management system helps ensure that risks are understood, critical
work is executed consistent with standards, reinforcement or corrective ac-
tion initiated contingent upon performance, and that the incident-prevention
process is continually improved and updated.

Chemical Handling Department
Pipeline Operations

The potential frequency for incidents involving pipeline operations is
inherently low. Thus, QMI’s record of operating its pipeline for many years
without a serious incident is not unexpected. Rather than depending solely
upon its favorable operating experience to identify significant risks, QMI
understands the need to consider the collective experience of other compa-
nies’ operating pipelines.