Safety Management System thoroughness

Thorough and effective analyses of workplace incidents are critical components of a comprehensive safety management system. Yet, many incident analysis processes (i.e., accident investigations) fall short. They frequently fail to identify and resolve the real root causes of injuries, process incidents and near misses. Because the true root causes of incidents are within the system, the system must change to prevent the incident from happening again. 

Hands-on workers can be divided into two categories. The first are those who are involved in day-to-day maintenance. The need to understand the facility s safety management systems (SMSs) thoroughly because they will often be working alone and/or quite independently. The second category consists of construction workers who are present for projects and are not a part of the facility s day-to-day operations. 

There is a need to assess exposures to assure that protections are effective. There is a need for thoroughly implemented safety management systems. 

And then there is the 374 page Baker Report , which is officially entitled The Report of the BP U.S. Refineries Independerrt Safety Review Panel which was published in Jantrary 2007 [17]. A blue ribbon corrrrruttee was chartered to make a thorough, independent, and creditable assessmerrt of BP s safety culture, safety management systems, and corporate oversight at its five refineries US refineries. 

The development of fomal safety management systems for offshore oil and gas facilities can be said to have started with the Piper Alpha catastrophe that occurred in 1988. Offshore platforms had had safety programs before that time, of course, usually built around Safety Cases (described in Chapter 8). But Piper Alpha ushered in a new and much more thorough approach to system safety. 

But the impact of Deepwater Horizon/Macondo went beyond the United States the accident caused oil companies all over the world to think through the effectiveness of their safety management programs. Moreover, events such as the Montara blowout in Australian waters in the year 2009 showed that these events are not confined to one place. The contents of this book therefore go beyond the United States regulatory environment. The book describes some of the major offshore incidents that have occurred over the last 40 years or so, some of which occurred onshore, that led to the development of modem safety management systems and regulations. So, for example, it contains a thorough discussion of the Safety Case approach—a system that was first used in the North Sea but that has now spread to many international locations. 

A fire safety audit may be described as a periodic (typically annual), systematic and thorough assessment of the implementation, suitability and effectiveness of the fire safety management system. It is a significantly more... 

A formal management system should be in place to prompdy and thoroughly address each recommendation. In the United States, Occupational Lfealth and Safety Administration (US OSHA) and Environmental Protec-... 

A thorough understanding of systems is necessary if basic changes are to he made. This concept is the foundation of the Rohm and Haas Texas system for process safety management Know what you want to do. But that is another story. ... 

To a great extent, use of audits stems from quality management practices that began with ISO 9000 and related standards. The concept requires companies seeking to achieve ISO 9000 certification to thoroughly document their management systems to ensure quality defined by the standard. Then independent auditors visit the company and its operations to verify that it conforms to the standard and to internal policies and procedures. Later, international standards applied the overall process to other areas, including safety and health. 

A management-risk analysis method would not only inform safety cases, it would also be complimentary to an organisation s audit function. For example, a checklist to inform audits could be made of processes or activities that are deemed particularly risky or that rely on assumptions in which there is limited confidence. In addition, the frequency or thoroughness of audits and the focus of safety assessments may also be increased for parts of a management system that are considered similarly risky, or whose failures could lead to particularly severe consequences. In these ways, both the efficiency and the effectiveness of audits and safety assessments could be improved. 

This new standard will have a significant and favorable impact on the content of the practice of safety and on the knowledge and skill requirements for safety and health professionals. Over time, ZIO will revolutionize the practice of safety. All persons responsible for occupational safety and health within an organization or who give counsel on occupational safety and health management systems to entities other than their own should have a copy of this standard and be thoroughly familiar with its content. 

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