Implementing the Action Plan

The key is to focus on only one challenge at a time. In preparation for action planning activities, you need to assemble and understand the following information  

To develop an action plan, identify the specific action items that need to be implemented. Keep to the facts and do not get into too many details. Action items should pinpoint events and critical steps to consider during implementation. Once the plan is designed, responsibility for each step can be assigned, along with an estimated target date. Refer to Appendix B for a sample action plan document. 

Discuss the action plan with management and all employees to get their buy-in. Once the action plan has been developed, you must make sure that individuals are assigned responsibilities for tracking action plans to completion. This will make sure that the implementations of all action items are managed properly. 

This chapter has defined what a successful management system evaluation should do. It has outlined what should be evaluated, who should do 

Rgure 17-10 Journey to sustainable management system processes. 

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To implement the Action Plan concerning the provision of adequate port reception facilities within the Mediterranean region (adopted in Cairo in December 1991)... 

Members of the management team (who are likely to be involved with implementing the action plan)... 

Completion dates and responsible individuals are then assigned to implement the action plan. The incident anal5rsis team shall then prepare and distribute a report to all supervisors for discussion with their employees. The Health and Safety Department collects the results of the analysis, compares this incident with previous records, and determines if a trend exists. 

When employees imderstand and accept the mission statement and guiding principles, they become more involved in the mission. The action plan will not be viewed as one more flavor of the month, but as relevant to the right principles and useful for achieving shared goals. Indeed, the workforce will help design and implement the action plans. This is crucial for cultivating a Total Safety Culture. 

Once the options have been clearly defined it will be necessary to carry out a cost-benefit analysis of each option. This has two main objectives. First, the overall cost of the project will need to be assessed to determine whether or not it is financially viable and, second, to ensure that those who will be required to incur expenditure are fully aware of the commitment needed. The financial benefits to users of the waters for recreation, fisheries, navigation, etc., are relatively easy to determine, but monetary valuation of the environmental benefits such as conservation and general amenity will be more difficult to define. As yet this aspect of the cost-benefit analysis has not been fully developed in the UK. Having determined a range of options and costs for eutrophication control in a particular catchment, consultation on the details of the Action plan with all those involved is needed before any plan can be implemented. 

It is only following the collection and collation of nutrient data from all sources, including agriculture, the appreciation of control options, and the development and implementation of Action plans , that significant progress will be made with eutrophication control in the UK. 

The next step in the business planning process is to define major milestones and an action plan of implementation and operation of the program. This action plan should detail the start and finish dates and list responsible individual(s) for each task necessary to accomplish the objectives of the business plan. The action plan should include periodic monitoring and assessment of the performance (i.e., clinical, financial, or other) of... 

An action plan can be used to monitor the progress toward a service start date. An action plan makes apparent that any delays in early actions could push back other activities and, ultimately, implementation of the service. Any late activities should be addressed immediately to limit delays. Also, sometimes actions can take longer than expected owing to an underestimate of time needed for completion. Updated versions of the action plan are likely to be needed, especially in pharmacies with little experience in implementing new services. 

The First Review Conference, however, went beyond this. It clearly recognized and highlighted the deficiencies that many States Parties had allowed to persist in their national implementation measures, and gave the Conference of the States Parties the task of developing and implementing an Action Plan to remedy the situation. The Conference subsequently adopted such an Action Plan. ... 

From a non-proliferation perspective, the proper functioning of national control systems for chemicals is as important as the application of international verification measures under the CWC. The CWC was designed to address state-to-state relations, and any proliferation concerns in this context need to be addressed through the provisions of Article VI (and, if need be. Article IX). But proliferation concerns relating to nonstate actors cannot easily be addressed in this manner, and the CWC relies heavily on the implementation work of the States Parties within their jurisdiction to prevent such acts of CW proliferation. It is in this context that the Review Conference called for the Action Plan on Article VII implementation. 

The designation of the Director for External Relations as the focal point for universality within the Secretariat and an invitation to States Parties to designate voluntary and informal points of contact (POCs) in all regions and sub-regions relevant for the effective promotion of universality were of particular importance for the implementation of the Action Plan, which was well under way by early 2004. Several POCs have been nominated, by Bulgaria, Chile, China, Iran, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, Oman, Palau, Poland, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, the Slovak Republic, South Africa, Tajikistan, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the State Party holding the presidency of the European Union. The Secretariat continues to work with these POCs and other interested States Parties to promote universahty of the CWC. 

There is a need now to focus on the implementation of all aspects of the Action Plan. Several States Parties - China, Japan, Kuwait, Norway and the Republic of Korea - made voluntary contributions in 2004 in support of universality-related activities. These and other States Parties, including Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Oman, Sweden and the United Kingdom, have provided voluntary contributions and support in previous years for regional, sub-regional and bilateral universahty activities. The European Union also announced a major contribution for 2005 under its Council Joint Action on support for OPCW activities in the framework of the implementation of the EU Strategy against Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. ... 

In support of the document of planned activities, the Technical Secretariat is also requested to provide information containing up-to-date details regarding the status of States not Party vis-a-vis the Convention, their prospects for adherence, their participation in universality-related activities, any significant chemical industry and any other issues relevant to the provisions of the Convention. The Director-General will also submit to the Conference of the States Parties an annual report on the implementation of the Action Plan, and he keeps the Council regularly informed, so that the Conference and the Council may review progress and monitor its implementation effectively. ... 

The implementation of the action plan was regularly monitored. In 1996 this led to the adjustment of the subsidies as a reaction to an uneven... 

Section 4.3 consolidates the requirements for implementing the ER plan commensurate with the hazards present. These requirements include those that address, for example, immediate corrective and mitigating actions specific actions that must be taken by the Incident Commander the use of backup persormel the use of self-contained breathing apparatus notification of the local emergency planning committee (LEPC) and the specific information that must be included in that notification when to suspend certain operations due to immediate danger to life or health (IDLH) and details regarding the release of information that must be provided to the public. 

Implement Action Plan. An action plan is necessary to identify how the quality-improvement solution will be implemented. This includes defining the different tasks to be performed, the order in which they will be addressed, who will perform each task, and how this improvement will be monitored. Appropriate resources must again be identified and a timetable must be developed prior to implementation. Once the action plan is implemented, the indicators are monitored and evaluated to verify appropriate changes in the process. New indicators and thresholds may need to be developed to monitor the solution. 

Implement Action Plan. During implementation of the action plan, appropriate indicators will be used to monitor the effectiveness of the action plan. 

Site/plant/project tracking systems may be used to check the implementation of action plans. 

Step 5 Planning and implementation of appropriate strategies for anticipating and preventing error occurrence, or for minimizing the potential for harm. The action plan incorporates within its framework a shared vision of appropriate goals that are focused, measurable, and simple. 

International Joint Commission (1989c) Progress in developing and implementing remedial action plans for Areas of Concern in the Great Lakes basin (Appendix A 1987 Report on Great Lakes Water Quality), Great Lakes Water Quality Board, Windsor, Ontario, Canada, 196 pp. 

International Association of International Tanker Owners (INTERTANKO). 1992. Regional Activities Programme for the Implementation of the Action Plan concerning the Provision of Adequate Port Reception Fadlities within the Mediterranean Basin, Discussion Paper. 

In every problem-solving method reviewed, the first steps are to identify and analyze the problem. Also, they end with a provision requiring that evaluations be made of the effects of the actions taken. Figure 1, The Safety Decision Hierarchy, presents a logical sequence of actions that safety professionals should consider in resolving safety issues identify and analyze the problem consider the possible solutions decide on and implement an action plan and determine whether the actions taken achieved the intended risk reduction results. Note that such a sequence of actions also fits weU with the PDCA concept. 

The Conference of the States Parties has subsequently adopted the following decisions on the follow up on the Action Plan regarding the implementation of Article VII obligations C-9/DEC.4 dated 30 November 2004 C-10/DEC.16 dated 11 November 2005 C-11/DEC.4 dated 6 December 2006 C-12/DEC.9 dated 9 November 2007, C-13/DEC.7 dated 5 December 2008 and C-14/DEC. 12 dated 4 December 2009. 

Requests the Director-General to submit to the Conference at its regular sessions an annual report on the implementation of the Action Plan, and to keep the Council regularly informed, so that the Conference and the Council may review progress and monitor its implementation effectively ... 

Encourages the POCs who have been designated on a voluntary and informal basis, to continue to assist with the implementation of the action plan and for the purposes of effective coordination and... 

Decides to continue with the action plan, and further decides that, at its Eleventh Session, it will review the results and progress of that plan, and that, at its Twelfth Session, 10 years after the entry into force of the Convention, it will review the implementation of the plan and take any decision it deems necessary, in particular addressing the status of those States not Party... 

Noting the armual report on the implementation of the action plan from 11 November 2005 to 25 September 2006, submitted by the Director-General (EC-47/DG.5 C-11/DG.4, dated 29 September 2006) ... 

Decides to continue with the action plan, and further decides that, at its Sixteenth Session, it shall review the results and implementation of that plan and take any decision it deems... 

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