Monitoring safety performance indicators

ATSB. 1999. Proactively Monitoring Airlines Safety Performance INDICATE. Australian Transport Safety Bureau. 

All activities which influence the organization must be monitored arrd the performance measured. Improvements will be made based on that perfomrarrce. The result of the improvements is then evalirated - hence the term continuous improvement. All safety performance indicators, both positive and negative, can be used to... 

Analysis and monitoring Is the approach to evaluating and trending safety and risk profiles over time. This includes regulatory compliance, safety performance indicators, and appropriate process controls and asset management. 

An absence of, or inadequate, information on which to base strategic decisions—including the monitoring of safety performance indicators at Board... 

To monitor safety performance in an effective and objective way, wherever possible and meaningful, the relevant measurable safety performance indicators should be used. These indicators should enable senior corporate managers to discern and react to shortcomings and early deterioration in the performance of safety management within the train of other business performance indicators. More information on the use of safety performance indicators, in particular to identify early signs of degradation in safety performance, can be found in Ref. [5],... 

Once the objectives for the process safety system are understood, the next step is to develop a strategy for reaching those objectives. Many actions will likely be proposed to improve performance, but without an unbiased measure to evaluate system performance, the improvement strategies may or may not be effective. This is where the indicators of performance or metrics play a major role in the performance improvement effort. Monitoring the performance of the system elements will provide the important feedback for understanding whether performance improvement plans are effective or may need modification. Metrics are the fundamental data that will help those implementing improvement efforts understand how well these efforts are progressing. 

Facility managers use a variety of metrics to monitor operating, maintenance, and process safety performance at their site. These metrics often include a consolidated or aggregated view of metrics as well as some selected detailed data of interest. These reports can indicate the process safety system performance across the site and provide a performance comparison for individual operating units. This allows the site manager to compare performance among the site operating units and use this information to focus performance improvement efforts. Metrics reports often include but are not limited to items such as ... 

Monitoring As required by the specific MOC, such as when testing a new technology or equipment Monitor the impact of the organizational change by measuring key safety and health performance indicators... 

During the OCM RA, the RA team should develop a list of process safety measures to monitor during and after the transition to assure effective process safety performance is maintained. The measures should be relevant to the change being made and readily indicate effective performance or issues. Ideally, there should be some baseline data from before the change for comparison. Process safety measures might include ... 

In chapter three, the theoretical background to all the potential macro-factors that could contribute to road accidents was presented. The relationship between each factor and the probability that road accidents may occur on the national level was conducted. One special criterion to select suitable indicators was used. This has enabled me to determine the key macro-performance indicators in road safety. It has become clear that the chosen indicators must be easy, available, measurable, and comparable worldwide. Moreover, these indicators must be able to indicate/monitor the country s progress over time in road safety and allow international comparisons. The obtained set of indicators was listed and summarised in Table 3.2. The next step was to understand and explain the main published macroscopic studies and models that are used in describing and comparing the road safety development internationally. I have divided the reviewed models into cross-sectional models (time-independent models) and (time-dependent models). A starting point in this direction was to investigate Smeed s equation, particularly in the relation between motorisation and fatality rates. Several models for... 

Evaluation , This element covers monitoring, measuring and recording safety and health performance, including selection of performance indicators. It includes investigations of events, audits of operations and management reviews. 

Activity measures monitor the performance of activities that are needed to reach key objectives. They reflect focused safety issues such as the number of hazard surveys conducted, the number of employees trained in lockout/tagout procedures, etc. These measures, sometimes called leading indicators, typically demonstrate the state of work-in-progress in terms of cost, quality, and time. Often they are found in official internal reports and are likely to be tracked by directors, managers, and supervisors. Leading indicators are measures of the activity prior to the outcome. 

Provide Continuous Monitoring of Performance is the final safety culture feature in the comprehensive CCPS book Guidelines for Risk Based Process Safety (KBPS) [9], The focus is leading and lagging indicators of a process safety culture (see Fig. 16.7). 

A high level of safety is the result of the complex interaction of engineered safety and operational safety. Experience has shown that focusing on any single aspect of performance is ineffective, and can be misleading. What is more valid is the broader picture presented by a set of indicators designed to monitor key aspects of safety performance. 

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