Turning a blind eye to workers' role in safety
14 May 2012
London – Plant operators and technicians are clearly on the frontline of things when it comes to process safety.
As well as being the people most immediately exposed to the dangers of any accident, their physical closeness to critical processes and equipment means that they can often sense – sometimes even smell, hear or feel – if something is not quite right.
However, this intimate awareness of the real-time, safety status of a process facility often counts for little: few workers are empowered to take immediate steps to slow down or stop a process operation if, for instance, a critical pump or motor seems out of tune.
Even if they did make such a call, they are unlikely to receive any more recognition than their counterpart on the previous shift, who simply ignored the problem or logged it for maintenance to check out at some future stage.
As Dave Topliffe, manufacturing manager at Shell Chemicals UK Ltd comments in Process Engineering magazine, it is important to give positive recognition when plant operators take defensive action to stabilise upsets.
“If I do, that strengthens credibility and energises and reinforces the behaviour required,” said Topliffe. “Turning a blind eye, and implicitly supporting the team that shows the wrong behaviour, undermines credibility and condones behaviour where maybe, next time, luck will run out.”
