Safety time tracking

Honeywell Safety Products announces the new ESP [Enabled Safety Products] System that helps reduce operational costs, improve worker safety and Circle 259 assure regulatory compliance. The new ESP System combines a web-based information management software service with ultra-high frequency (UHE) and radio frequency identification (RFlD)-enabled Miller fall protection equipment for real-time tracking control and safety compliance management. Miller by Honeywell, www.miller fall-protection.com, (800) 873-5242. Circle 259... 

In contrast, safety goals are most often stated in negative reinforcement terms. How many times have you heard, "We will reach our safety goal after another month without a losttime injury," and "keeping score" in safety means tracking and recording losses or injuries ... 

Consider this example. There are two manufacturing facilities in central North Carolina facing each other on opposite sides of the street. One facility manufactures implantable pacemakers the other cuts stripped pine into tongue depressors. Both utilize the same software package to track shipments and potentially to recall problem deliveries. A pacemaker recall must be perfect and timely, or a patient death is the likely result. A tongue depressor recall (hard to imagine) has little or no impact on health and safety. 

As noted in Chapter 1, the priorities in batch processes are often quite different from those in large-scale continuous processes. Particularly when manufacturing specialty chemicals, the shortest time possible to get a new product to market is often the biggest priority (accepting that the product must meet the specifications and regulations demanded and the process must meet the required safety and environmental standards). This is particularly true if the product is protected by patent. The period over which the product is protected by patent must be exploited to its full. This means that product development, testing, pilot plant work, process design and construction should be fast tracked and carried out as much as possible in parallel. 

Activities documenting and tracking implementation of corrective actions or safety improvements are not part of a PrHA report. However, the PSM Rule requires a documented, integrated system for managing and monitoring action items. This system must assure that action items and recommendations are addressed and documented in a timely manner. Implementation schedules for corrective actions or safety improvements must be tracked. Finally, the system must assure that all affected operating and maintenance personnel and other affected employees are notified of planned actions. 

Once the NDA has been filed, the sponsor must monitor the progress of the NDA review in order to detect problems or concerns at the earliest possible moment. This monitoring or tracking must be carried out with great sensitivity. If contacts are too frequent or poorly timed they can quickly become an annoyance, which can hamper further communications. The project manager or consumer safety officer is the usual point of contact. If there is difficulty with a particular review, then the reviewer should be contacted (with consideration, obviously, for the reviewer s time). 

The only way to avoid this is by strict analysis of the supply chain from the customer order to final product delivery. Definition of the optimized (theoretical) process and sequential work towards a high service level approach allow the identification of gaps, and of opportunities which might not always be the cheapest (ship versus train versus plane) but could be the most effective way to reduce capital costs and shorten planning scope - an important aspect, especially in volatile customer markets with long production processes on the (chemical) supplier side. As in the case of CIP, this needs clear parameters, KPIs, commitment from all players, and regular tracking. The most important parameters are the lead time for all products, optimal lot sizes, replenishment points, and safety inventories. 

Defining the indicators that track the process safety system performance is an important structural part of the improvement program. Metrics are used to monitor performance and progress over time. Without a method to track differences in performance, the improvement effort may lack clarity of focus that leads to decreased effectiveness. 

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