Loss-producing events

It establishes the organization s capability to forecast the potential for loss-producing events [p. 28],... 

Once again this reporting system, which may be the most important in the safety system, should be anonymous. Near-miss incidents, which may have been loss-producing events under slightly different circumstances, need to be reported. The focus should not be on who reported and why he or she didn t do something about it. A strong safety culture is about how we fix the problem so that it doesn t happen again. 

The principle of safety definition states that decisions concerning the safety program can only be made if the basic causes of loss-producing events are clearly identified. An audit helps identify these basic causes. 

Little if any significant progress has been made in the reduction of accidental deaths and injuries at the majority of workplaces. This is despite the fact that workplaces have implemented and followed safety innovations and new approaches. Many of these have proved to be ineffective in preventing injuries, fatal accidents, and other loss-producing events. 

For the insurance industry, another aspect of risk is loss control. Loss control is controlling conditions that can lead to a loss. It is part of risk management. For an insurance company, loss control is helping insured customers prevent loss producing events. Few losses means few insurance claims. From a safety perspective, loss control helps clients manage safety and health, recognizes hazards and implements preventive measures. The measures eliminate accidents and incidents that create personal, property or financial losses for both parties. When loss control is effective, the insurance company and the insured gain benefits. 

Total value of the insurance claims for an incident (injury/illness, loss producing events). This cost will consist of medical cost and indemnity payments, reserves on accounts, etc. 

If management wants to rednce incidents (injuries, illnesses, loss-producing events, and/or other related costs), everyone must place as much emphasis on safety issues as they place on other core management issues, such as production, sales, and quality control. To be most effective, safety must be balanced with and integrated in other core business processes. 

Conduct weekly inspections with emphasis on good housekeeping, proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE), condition of critical parts of equipment, and preventive maintenance Determine the root cause analysis of any incident in 24 hours Create a written system for documenting all incidents and near misses (loss-producing events) and all subsequent investigations and corrective actions... 

Periodically review the performance objectives to make sure that you are getting the desired performance results. For example, if a supervisor meets the objectives, but the department continues to have too many incidents (near misses, no improvement in conditions, or other loss-producing events) then the objectives need to be revised [2]. 

You could set a goal of a certain number of injuries. However, in doing so you ignore both illnesses and those existing hazards that have not yet resulted in an injury— for example, a near miss or other loss-producing events. 

Investigating incidents (near miss/hit and significant loss-producing events) so their causes and means of prevention can be identified... 

In industry, we use many definitions to describe an incident or an accident. Frequently both terms are used interchangeably. We use the term loss-producing events to describe incidents. As we stated previously, sometimes the journey is more important than the destination. The following are some of the more common definitions ... 

The most obvious losses are deemed to include harm to employees, property, or processes [1]. Implied and related losses include loss-producing events— for example, business interruption and profit reductions. Bird and Germain argue that once the sequence has occurred, the... 

Risk The likelihood or possibility of hazard consequences in terms of severity and probability (Stephenson 1991). The probability of occurrence of a loss-producing event, the chance of loss. The probability or a range of probabilities that a specific adverse effect may occur under the conditions of human exposure. It may be expressed in quantitative terms, taking values from zero (certainty that harm will not occur) to one (certainty that it will). In many cases, risk can only be described qualitatively (i.e., as high, low, or trivial). 

Per references from the nuclear power industry, loss-producing events are said to be split between 80 percent human error and 20 percent physical equipment failure. Of this 80 percent allocated to human error, 70 percent stem from organizational weakness (latent errors). Only 30 percent are from individual mistakes. If 70 percent of incidents are due to organizational... 

Often a lot of manpower is wasted by directing efforts into the rectification of immediate causes of loss-producing events. The principle of safety definition states that the basic or root cause must be identified before a remedy is prescribed. 

Most accident investigations uncover a single cause and label this as the main cause of the accident. Accidents are always caused by more than one factor. The principle of multiple causes states that accidents or loss-producing events are seldom, if ever, the result of a single cause. This means that accidents have more than one cause. When H. 

The event tree analysis is similar to the fault tree analysis and enables management to prevent loss producing events as a result of risks within the system. The event tree analysis is a predictive method of analyzing risks. 

Once the investigation is completed, the hazards need to be eliminated. If the loop is not closed, the same risks will eventually lead to a loss-producing event. The hazard must be eliminated and a follow up done to ensure the ranedial action is completed. This is a weak area in many near miss incident and accident investigation systems. 

These loss-producing events are termed accidents. Some refer to them as incidents, but, for clarity, they will be referred to as accidents in this publication. No-loss events with potential for loss will be termed near miss incidents. 

Within this swirl of data and decisions, your task is to keep the leadership team aware of the scope of the hazards and associated risk inherent in operations. Your main effort is to influence leadership decisions on recommended hazard and risk controls necessary to reduce injuries and loss-producing events. To do this, you must understand how communication works within the organization to ensure that correct information concerning hazards and risk flows quickly through the network without distortion. 

Overconfidence—The history of injury and/or loss-producing events is good as compared to the industry, and no significant loss events have occurred. The organization has begun to believe that since there are no losses, the risk is low. Safety meetings, inspections, policies and procedures, etc. are not followed as routinely as they once were. Indications of safety issues and problems are not reviewed or analyzed. 

Plant Operational Events— Loss-producing events are unrecognized or underplayed. Reactions to such events and unsafe conditions are low level or limited in scope and do not reach the attention of the leadership team. Causal factors of loss-producing events are not explored in depth and in a systematic manner. 

Objective 1—Each supervisor will select two designated jobs based on the departmental loss-producing events analysis provided by the safety department, initial hazard/risk... 

Task and activity should be monitored based on events to support the evaluation. For example, you may need to monitor supervisors incident investigation processes after each loss-producing event until the supervisors have developed the necessary investigation skills. 

Investigating all real/potential loss-producing events such as injuries, property damage, etc. so that causes and future prevention methods can be determined and implemented. 

For example, if supervisors have little control over maintenance, hiring practices, trairung, budget, time, quality, etc., then they have little control over the elements that create the potential for a loss-producing event. In this scenario, if supervisors are held accormtable for injuries that may occur, they are being held accormtable for human and latent errors that are not under his or her control (Volume 1 Concepts and principles, human performance improvement handbook, 2009). The best approach is to have clearly defined, tangible responsibilities for preloss activities and lines of authority. 

Assist in loss-producing event investigations and weekly planned inspections. 

---