Maintenance poor communication

This incident seemed to be a result of poor communications and it is obvious that good communications is one of the keys to successful preparation for maintenance. A significant factor was the amount of caustic soda remaining. If there were a few hundred pounds or even a ton of residual caustic soda there would not have been an incident. There have been a number of incidents in which the amount of residual material was hidden from view, or otherwise grossly underestimated and the neutralizing or cleaning solutions material reacted vigorously. 

One simple vivid example of poor communication in maintenance occurred after the plant staff marked the location of an underground electrical bus with a series of flags on the surface. No one discussed the job with the backhoe operator, so when he saw the flags, the hoe operator assumed that the flags indicated the location of the path to be dug. He severed the sub-surface electrical cables and a large portion of the chemical plant facility was blacked out. The report failed to mention the fate of the backhoe operator. [1]... 

Misuses of automation Unbalanced work load Unplanned maintenance Long process setup times Upstream quality problems Unleveled scheduling Poor communication... 

However, this approach alone provides little or no insight into the real causes of failure. Underlying causes of serious corrosion damage often include human factors such as lack of corrosion awareness and inadequate training and poor communication. Further underlying causes may include weak maintenance management systems, insufficient repairs due to short-term profit motives, a poor organizational "safety culture," defective supplier s products, or an incorrect material selection. 

Maintenance Unexpected events. Poor communication Risks should be... 

Haloperidol, zuclopenthixol, fluphenazine, flupentixol and pipothiazine are available as depot intramuscular injections for maintenance treatment of patients with schizophrenia and other chronic psychotic disorders. Provided the patient is willing to agree to have depot injections, usually by a community psychiatric nurse at intervals of 2-4 weeks, the need to take tablets two or three times a day is removed. Poor compliance with oral medication is the most common cause of admission to hospital with a relapse of schizophrenia. A reduced initial dose of the depot medication should be given, with a review for unwanted effects after 5-10 days. 

In 1984, one of the most notable process incidents occurred in Bhopal, India, at a plant owned by Union Carbide. On December 3, 1984, methyl isocyanate (MIC) was vented to the atmosphere from a vent gas scrubber after a run away reaction overwhelmed the scrubber. It is reported that more than 2500 people died and 20,000 people were injured as a result of exposure to MIC. The subsequent investigation showed that the run away reaction occurred in the MIC tanks after water was reportedly intentionally added to the tank. The safety systems, a pressure relief valve, a vent gas scrubber, and a flare were reportedly poorly maintained. The relief valve worked to vent the pressure, but the scrubber was overwhelmed, and the flare was down for maintenance. This incident highlighted several loss prevention areas that needed improvement. The first was mechanical integrity. No strong preventive maintenance effort appeared to be in place. The second was emergency preparedness and response. It appears that while the plant was built 1.5 miles away from the community, zoning problems allowed the community to expand to the plant limits. It does not appear that much effort was made to work with the community on commimication/notification or evacuation needs. ... 

Other causes of stmctural failure are improper assembly and maintenance. Some failures may result from human error or may be due to designs that are difficult, impractical or impossible to implement. Some may simply result from careless work and poor decisions on the part of workers and management. Sometimes several causes combine and lead to failure. Lack of communication, skill, knowledge, training, procedures, and management commitment can all contribute to faulty workmanship. 

Biofiltration works to degrade a diversity of airborne contaminants, including industrial chemicals like styrene (Arnold et al. 1997), pentane and isobutane mixtures (Barton et al. 1997), toluene (Matteau and Ramsay 1997), chlorinated benzenes (Oh and Bartha 1994), dimethylsulfide (Pol et al. 1994), ethylene (Elsgaard 1998), and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs Leson and Winer 1991). Maintenance of good degrada-tive activity of biofilter microbial communities sometimes requires the addition of nutrients to the bioliltration matrix, since materials like peat or wood chips are generally nutrient poor. Adjustments and careful control of environmental variables such as temperature, pH, and availability of moisture (humidity) also are often required (Arnold et al. 1997 Matteau and Ramsay 1997). Removal rates for contaminants by biofilters can be impressive. For example, removal of vapors of chlorinated compounds (chlorinated benzenes, in one instance) was measured at 300 g of solvent vapor h m of filter volume (Oh and Bartha 1994). 

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