Shift Manager

One person, e.g. a Shift Manager, will have responsibility for responding immediately to an incident and for taking charge. 

The Olefins PSM Coordinator must work with five shift managers who are each required to review the procedure and return comments to him. This will almost certainly be a bottleneck in the process. 

A lot of contradictions in planning processes have their root in the separation of material requirements planning and resource scheduling. This leads to the situation that detailed planning of multipurpose batch plants is still the domain of experienced production schedulers and shift managers who have gained superior knowledge over the years that makes them indispensable. 

Improvement Item Habitability surveys were not conducted initially at Command Post or Forward Operations. First ACEMS unit responded directly to the scene and had to leave the area due to fumes. Entry should be coordinated with IC (Incident Commander). Safety officer was not designated for EMS operations. Safety Officer responsibilities were defaulted to ACEMS Shift Manager. 

At about 1.25 am on the fourth of November 1975 the foreman at the Queen Victoria Blast Furnace, Appleby-Frodingham Works started a cast that was intended to fill two torpedo ladles. Conditions at the time were normal the shift manager was in attendance. 

Shortly before 2.47 am instmctions from the shift manager were passed via Traffic Control to a loco driver and shunter to remove the full torpedo ladle from the vicinity of the furnace. Traffic personnel were made aware that water was mnning into the torpedo. As the loco was coupled to the ladle, water was seen to be coming from the iron runner. An explosion occurred as the ladle was moved. An eye witness identified the throat of the ladle as the seat of the explosion. The incident was timed at 2.47 am. 

Finally, PMCD work permits must be issued for all entries into chemical agent hazard areas and areas designated Permit Required Confined Spaces. Work permits, which must identify the individual and the work to be performed, are reviewed by operations maintenance and safety personnel and approved by the shift manager. Special monitoring may be required, and records of entries and monitoring must be kept for 30 years beyond the last day of employment or the closure date of the facility. 

The Shift Managers and Shift Engineers are positions not commonly found in startups. When a fast startup is imperative and is complex technically, these positions can add considerable value. 

Follow the change control procedure. Any changes to the operation must be approved by the appropriate Step Specialist and the Technical Manager. In an emergency, the Shift Manager can give temporary approval. 

This is the biggest enemy of a successful startup. Shift managers and shift engineers will allow the non-shift personnel to leave at night. The consecutive working hour rule must be rigorously enforced. Recommend that no more than 16 consecutive hours out of 24 and no more than 80 hours in a seven day week. 

The Licensee is responsible for safety on a NPS and this is delegated to the Station Manager. In the event of a reactor accident, which may involve the release of activity to the environment, the Shift Manager, after reporting the details of the accident to the Station Manager or his nominated deputy, if they are on the station, will declare over the public address system that an emergency situation exists. All station staff and other persons on the site withdraw to nominated assembly areas for a roll call. Instructions may be given to issue potassium iodate tablets. 

Coincidentally with the above activities, the Shift Manager will assume the role of Emergency Controller from the CCR which is the only control centre in the reactor building to remain manned throughout the emergency. 

The Shift Manager has full technical and administrative functions, and he is responsible for the safety and operation (and shift maintenance, where applicable) of the station site, within the duties specified. On completion of his shift (nominally 8 hours) he hands over his duties to the on-coming Shift Manager and another shift team. 

The Shift Manager s duties are considerable and can be briefly defined below ... 

The essential requirement of the shift team, under the Shift Manager, operating a complex nuclear plant is their reliability when performing their tasks. That they should be able to supervise and operate the plant in the specified normal condition, and be able to identify operational abnormalities and incidents quickly, is all-important. They must at the same time be able to take the correct action swiftly to solve any plant problems that arise. 

The shift teams at all nuclear stations are supported by technical experts. The Shift Manager is therefore able to call for specialist advice outside his own team. This may be in the Mechanical, Electrical, Control and Instrumentation, Chemistry, Operational Performance (physics) or Health Physics fields. A system exists whereby the Shift Manager can gain advice during the out-of-hours period, thus covering the full 24-hour period of operation. 

Written examinations are not considered suitable for the refresher courses, because the objective is team participation, as well as individual performance. However, the Shift Manager must make judgements on each individual s performance at these refreshers and then additional training can be given if it is thought that this is required in a particular case. 

The main control room accommodates an operator console, a supervisor s console, safety consoles, the wall panel information system large screen displays and the DAS panel. The operator console provides the displays and controls to start up, manoeuvre, and shut down the plant, and it is designed to be staffed by one to six operators. The operator interfaces are the duty system control displays, soft controls, alarm presentation system displays, computerised procedures displays, as well as the VDU monitors, keyboards and mice. The supervisor s console is a smaller version of the operators console, and is designed to be staffed by one or two personnel. The primary dedicated safety panel and VDU-based safety system workstations are located at the centre of the operator console, with a secondary safety panel located in close proximity to the supervisor s console. The DAS panel is located at a sidewall in the main control room. The main control room also includes communication devices, document lay down areas, printers and storage space. A meeting table is provided and equipped with a VDU-based workstation to allow access to the duty control system by, for example, a technical advisor or shift manager, without disrupting control room operations. In close proximity to the main control room are the shift supervisor s office, the operations staff area, an operations woik area, restrooms, and kitchen facilities. 

Allows access to the duty control system for, for example, a technical advisor or shift manager, without disrupting control room operations. 

The Shift Manager was in the Control Room looking after the plant and monitoring the temperatures and pressures. Meanwhile, at the steam drum, the Operations Manager was in control. An old-fashioned-looking manual pressure gage had been installed on the steam drum it was a specially calibrated gage for the boiler inspector. 

At times in this book, I may appear to have been too sympathetic to the operators -for example, Colin Seaton on Piper Alpha, or Captain Khowhyter on Saudia 163. My reason for being sympathetic is that I have been a shift manager of a nuclear power station, and I know how easy it is to make errors of judgment when things go wrong. 

When I was a 26-year-old assistant shift manager in 1982, 1 caused a nuclear power station to shutdown. It was my mistake. It was a routine reactor trip no one was harmed. However, the reactor trip was my fault alone, because 1 acted impulsively. I thought 1 knew what 1 was doing, and 1 was keen to prove myself to others. 

Holiday and sickness cover was from the shift teams on three months days There was no procedure for temporarily upgrading from Assistant Shift Manager to a Shift Manager. The military-style hierarchy was absolute the Shift Manager was an officer, but the Assistant Shift Manager was only an NCO. 

Normally at nuclear power stations, a shift manager s period of training and development will last several years. Suddenly, in early 1981, PFR had to find new shift managers as soon as possible. 

My immediate boss said I should apply. He said senior management must be in a bit of a panic, they had dropped the ball on succession management. 1 had only been at PFR some 18 months, and I was still not quite 26 years old. 1 checked out the existing shift managers their average age was 42. 

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