Safety management system action

The audit team, through its systematic analysis, should document areas that require corrective action as well as where the process safety management system is effective. This provides a record of the audit procedures and findings and serves as a baseline of operation data for future audits. It will assist in determining changes or trends in future audits. 

History of previous incidents. Frequent incidents, especially serious ones, indicate a breakdown in process safety management systems. They also indicate that the facility may be more likely to have additional incidents, unless the underlying causes have been determined and specific actions have been implemented to prevent their reoccurrence. 

The information derived from reports of transportation incidents provides an excellent outcome measurement of the performance of a company s transportation safety management program. Information about the causes of transportation incidents not only provides the basis for proper corrective actions, but also provides useful lessons for the future, which can lead to improvements in the transportation safety management system. 

Although it could be suggested that positioning safety as a separate entity is a simple rhetorical manifestation of reference to an abstract concept, reflective of safety management systems, it is equally suggestible that it is prec/se/y the associations with ownership and responsibility that are important here, and have actually helped develop our shared understandings. In constructing safety in this way, it is set apart from any personal responsibility, ownership or action and ultimately becomes either its own, or more likely within the context, someone else s responsibility. 

The action principle of safety culture, principle of attitude and behavior and accident triangle principle can explain the action principle zero accident . Improving the safety management system, correcting people s unsafe behavior, controlling near misses and other small incidents are the effective way to achieve zero accidents objective for enterprise. 

Employees should be empowered to take part in safety decisions and to participate in the safety management system. Part of this is the establishment of employee authority, safety responsibility, and accountability for all levels. One of the best methods for employee empowerment is a facilitated workshop where management is encouraged to talk to the employees. This should be held in a safe space. The facilitator asks employees to list the things that could be done to improve safety at the plant, and what hampers safety in the workplace. Once a list is compiled, the attendees are asked to list what actions are needed to rectify the identified stumbling blocks and also to assign responsibility for those actions. Once the critical few hazards have been isolated, commitments are made to take action to rectify either the behaviors or conditions to eliminate the listed potential accidents. It is simply a matter of the employees tell us how we can improve safety. ... 

Establish a safety management system to investigate each injury or illness, analyze the facts of the incident to determine the root cause, and apply that knowledge by taking actions and developing programs to prevent injuries and illnesses. Periodically review all of the incidents... 

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest score, some of these companies—large companies—scored as low as 2. Causal factor determination was abysmal, corrective actions were superficial, and opportunities to select leading indicators that define how safety management systems could be improved were overlooked. 

When safety management systems are most effective, there is a commitment to ascertaining the facts about hazards and risks, regardless of any unpleasantness that may arise during the discovery process, and taking actions to achieve acceptable risk levels. 

Rarely are safety management systems in place to determine whether the preventive actions taken achieve the intended risk reduction. 

Putting in place the processes outlined in Section 6.0 of ZIO results in an evaluation of the effectiveness of health and safety management systems. Through this evaluation stage, shortcomings are identified, decisions are made on the actions necessary to overcome the deficiencies, and corrective action is taken. Communication on the... 

Advisory comments on incident investigation are more extensive. They indicate that incidents should be viewed as possible symptoms of problems in the occupational health and safety management system the goal is to identify and correct hazards and system deficiencies before incidents occur experience shows that incident investigations should be commenced as soon as practical and lessons learned from investigations are to be fed back into the planning and corrective action processes. 

This is meaty stuff. All elements in a safety management system, while necessary, do not equally impact on those hazards that present the greatest potential for harm, whether measured by incident frequency or severity of injury. Obviously, the safety management elements included, and those emphasized, in an audit system should relate to the hazards that an entity reaUy has to deal with. Keep in mind that hazards include both the characteristics of things and the actions or inactions of people. 

A Management Review is to result in a documentation of the action items necessary to achieve continual improvement in occupational health and safety management systems, the assignment of responsibility for the actions to be taken, completion dates, and requirements for periodic reporting on progress made. One test of the organization s safety culture is whether resources are made available to achieve the improvements decided upon. 

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