Page 227 - Serious Incident Prevention How to Achieve and Sustain Accident-Free Operations in Your Plant or Company

CH16pp190-196 4/10/02 12:52 PM Page 193

Responding to the Challenge 193

History of incidents
Frequency of near misses
Low safety audit scores
High level of risk inherent to the unit’s operations
Other key indicators

Priority for implementation may also be given to units led by individu-
als who have earned the reputation as “safety champions” for their leader-
ship in implementing safety improvement initiatives. Inclusion of these
high-performance units in a pilot program will assure that the initial imple-
mentation is supported with the proper leadership and that the initiative is
received as credible in the eyes of others.
Regardless of implementation on a facility-wide or a pilot-program
basis, leaders must ensure the actions necessary for success are taken.
Experience confirms that implementation plans should include the follow-
ing actions:

Identify, encourage, and recruit employees for leadership roles
Form implementation teams comprised of employees responsible for
the critical work and other individuals with special expertise valuable
to the team
Provide training for implementation teams
Consider the need for team facilitators
Consider the need for a steering team
Ensure that “Plan-Do-Check-Act” steps are in place
Conduct communications meetings led by the implementation team
to introduce the serious incident prevention process to all affected
employees
Include management’s visible participation and endorsement in the
communications meetings
Follow the plan, maintain constancy of purpose, continue to involve
employees, and continually strive for improvement

An approach that includes the above actions will maximize the proba-
bility of a successful implementation. This approach recognizes that indi-
viduals responsible for the critical work must be involved in leadership roles
in developing and implementing the serious incident prevention process.
Providing training on the elements of the serious incident prevention
process and teamwork skills will be helpful in keeping the team on track