May 27, 2010
Process Safety – Reacting after an incident?
Why do organizations react only after incidents occur? Are they missing the signals coming loud and clear before a major incident happens? My understanding of the situation is that as long as nothing happens, process safety is assumed to be working. If anything does happen and there is major incident, all hell breaks loose and quick fix solutions – like becoming World Class in Safety are immediately thought of. What top management in many organizations are missing out is that there are enough warnings in the form of external and internal audit reports, incident reports and near miss reports that sound alarm bells before a major incident occurs. These signals are not picked up by the top management in time. While becoming World Class by adopting a best in class organizations’ practices is good, there is one important difference between copying a system and copying culture. A system can be copied quickly but culture cannot. In Indian conditions, it is very difficult to change culture quickly. It is a 24 by 7 job that has to be done by top management with unwavering support in times of resource crunches also. While a quarter on quarter growth in profits is demanded by the shareholders, why is not a quarter on quarter growth in safety performance also not demanded? I’m perplexed!!!
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I feel that the inability /failure of the top management to recognize / appreciate hazard potential of the warning signs and its impact on the organization is what causing the accidents to occur again and again. Regulatory agencies interact with the management after an accident occurs and loss of life is involved. But, when incidents / near misses occur, it will come to their notice and therefore they do not issue any notice. And management thinks like a cat drinking milk with closed eyes which thinks that nobody is seeing it and nothing will happen.
ReplyDeleteThough managements are bothered about profits, the loss potential of the hazard is not visible and how to make them realize this is a tough job indeed.