Feedback pilot testing

Developing mechanisms for soliciting feedback. Pilot participants feedback and input are crucial not otdy for the test itself, but, more important, to enable the PSM team to refine the system for full implementation. Experience shows that the more quality feedback you receive, the more responsive you can be to customer requirements. The way you solicit... 

Following is a questionnaire format developed by a divisional PSM Task Force to elicit feedback from a plant s employees about the PSM pilot test. The Task Force designed it to be adaptable to a range of activities and plans to use it at the conclusion of each one. At the request of the plant manager, responses are sent directly to the Task Force rather than directed to him. 

To make the most of our participation in the PSM pilot test, the PSM Task Force needs your help. One of the main reasons we are conducting this test is to make sure our new system for managing process safety is practical and that it gives each of us what we need to do our jobs safely and effectively. We can t do this without your input. That s why the pilot test plan calls for getting your feedback on a continuing basis, and one of the ways we ll be asking for it is through questionnaires like this one. 

What we have learned. Discussion of variances (positive and negative) from plans. Detailed report on PSM pilot test strengths, weaknesses, implications, how the PSM system has been refined based on experience. (Note be prepared to justify any increase in resource requirements or any significant slippage in timetable.) Include discussion of local feedback— mechanisms and content—and acknowledge the contribution and cooperation of facility management and staff. 

Scriven (1967) first distinguished between the formative and summative roles of evaluation. Formative evaluations, conducted during the implementation of a safety program, provide directors information that helps improve the program. Formative evaluation typically involves content inspection by experts, pilot tests with small numbers of workers, field tests with larger numbers of workers in several plants, and so forth. Each step results in immediate feedback to the developers, who would then use the information to make necessary revisions (Worthen and Sanders 1987,34). 

The development of the steam reforming process has not been based on initial understanding of the catalysis. The progress was driven mainly by an inductive approach with feedback from industrial operation and pilot tests [417],... 

Measure and monitor. Installation at the test sites will be closely monitored against an established timetable, as well as in terms of our established PSM criteria and goals. Throughout this process, we will solicit feedback and other commentary from the pilot sites for incorporation into ongoing process improvement. 

At this point a test must be made to determine whether the above-mentioned moving average deviates excessively from the theoretical course. If this turns out to be the case, the pilot switches to manual control. The autopilot is replaced by the pilot (Figure 3.7). Within the framework of cybernetics, this means that a second control circuit with the controller acting as a controlled system is superior to the control circuit with the autopilot. Many actual systems consist of a multitude of interacting superior and subordinate feedback control circuits in order to be able to make corrections to individual parts when they malfunction. 

These feedback loops in the manufacturing process exist for all the manufacture of any product, even a commodity chemical. Before a multimillion-dollar plant is constructed, a pilot plant is usually constructed. Before a new chemical product is manufactured, small quantities are made in the laboratory to determine whether the product satisfies the need for which it was designed. Similarly, before a device is manufactured, a prototype is built and tested. 

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