Safety performance historical measurements

But, no statistical, historical performance measurement system can assess the quality of safety in place that encompasses low probability-high consequence incidents since such events seldom appear in the statistical history. Example A risk assessment concludes that a defined catastrophic event, one that has not happened and is not represented in the statistical base, has an occurrence probability of once in 200 plant operating years.)... 

Even for the large organization with significant annual hours worked, in addition to historical data, hazard-specific and qualitative performance measures (safety audits, perception surveys, the incident... 

Experience rating is mandatory for all employers who buy workers compensation insurance from insurance companies. For those employers, experience rating is one of the historical performance measures that can be used, cautiously, as an indicator of the quality of safety in place. Self-insured companies would not have workers compensation experience modifications. 

Historically, how well have the performance measures safety professionals selected measured performance ... 

Such analyses produce leading indicators that serve as predictors of the future if risk reduction actions are not taken. No matter what criticisms are offered about the shortcomings of historical performance measures, it would be folly for safety professionals to treat them as other than valuable resources. 

In the second edition of this book, I wrote that a renewed interest had developed in having measurement systems that effectively assess occupational safety performance, measurements that are universally applicable. Preferably, those measures would not only be historical but also predictive and serve as a base from which to prioritize future safety efforts. A significant goal was to have those measures communicate well in terms that managements understand. This renewed interest in performance measures arose out of the increased desire of some environmental, safety, and health professionals to move the profession forward by being able to establish more definitively the value of their work in relation to organizational goals. 

Quantitative safety performance measurements can be either outcome oriented or process oriented (Daugherty 1999, 147). Outcome-oriented performance measures are after-the-fact measures. The performance activity has occurred then the results have been measured. Examples of outcome measures used in safety include the reduction in the number of accidents, lost workdays, etc. Outcome measures can provide an indication as to the impact safety program interventions have upon safety performance. These performance measures provide an historical account of the effectiveness of past performance. 

As safety performance measures are selected, safety professionals need to keep in mind that they should provide the historic and current status of the subjects they cover and be predictable with respect to practicable goals to be achieved. Also, they should get agreement with executive management that the measures will satisfy their needs. Above all, the measures selected must communicate well in terms that management understands. 

In modern chemical plants, thousands of measurements are recorded at frequencies that can exceed 1 Hz. Aside from plant operating conditions including pressures, temperatures, flow rates, and stream composition, other recorded variables include product purity, contamination levels (air, water, soil), and even safety compliance. All this information is stored in enormous databases. This historical record may be interrogated to monitor process performance, and control, for troubleshooting, to demonstrate environmental compliance and modeling. Often smoothing techniques are required to help identify trends in the data that may be masked by low signal-to-noise ratios. 

While statistical and historical data are considered after the fact and are designated as lagging indicators in the literature on leading and lagging indicators, they do provide broad, macro, and meaningful measures of safety performance. Analyzing the incident data, professionally, will result in ... 

AVT is a fully nondestmctive test, especially suitable to historic stractures because it is performed by just measuring the response in operational conditions, fit turn, the knowledge of global parameters of the building, such as the modal parameters, provides essential information to validate the numerical models currently used to quantitatively estimate the structural safety of Cultural Heritage stractures or to design repair interventions. 

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