Use of ES

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Use of ESH Inspections to Develop
Performance-Based Leading Indicators and Avoid
the Safety Cop Mentality
Mike D. Kinney, CPF, CSP National Security
Technologies, LLC ISM Best Practices Workshop
September 12, 2006
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• Getting Started
• Good news!
• Opportunity to win free stuff OK, OK, beads
• What should be the purpose of conducting ESH
  inspections?
• Which process provides the opportunity for
  long-term improvement continuing to issue
  speeding tickets or establishment of a safe
  driver awareness program?

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Getting Started
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• Background
• Numerous regulatory drivers address the need to
  perform inspections
• Inspections can address numerous topical areas,
  including worker safety, industrial hygiene,
  hoisting and rigging, fire protection,
  environmental management, etc.
• Inspections are used by management to
  demonstrate commitment, focus on safety, etc.
• The majority of inspections utilize some version
  of a checklist to guide the process

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• Background
• Checklist commonly contain Yes/No/Does Not
  Apply columns to document inspection results
• Checklists may, or may not, require concurrence
  from the organization being evaluated
• Use of checklists is 1) easy to do 2) can be
  completed in a timely manner and 3) easy to
  prove to line management that required
  evaluations/inspections are being completed

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• Challenges
• Management thinks they understand the value
  of inspection results-
• Less findings we are improving
• More findings we are doing worse
• Inspectors arent provided with tools to
  assist the organization with meeting program
  performance goals
• Inspection results represent single data point
  in time
• Traditional inspections do not readily portray
  the overall health of the topic being evaluated

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• Challenges (continued)
• Results from traditional inspections are
  difficult to compare against previous evaluations
  (e.g., track and trend)
• Management can inadvertently provide incentives
  for completing inspections on time versus
  emphasizing actual results (e.g., two per month,
  good job!)
• Lack of clear methods to meet company
  expectations
• (e.g., compliance with all requirements) can
  lead to reduced morale and increased friction
  between facility/site personnel and inspectors

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• Challenges (continued)
• The majority of checklist type inspections do
  not permit grading of results (e.g., pass,
  fail, does not apply)
• Use of inspection checklists can become routine
  (e.g., check the box inspection)
• This approach also limits the ability of ESH
  professionals to assist with programmatic
  initiatives
• In numerous instances, these efforts are viewed
  by facility/site personnel and the evaluators as
  just yet another safety ticket being issued

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Example
Questions Which group has improved? Which
group has declined? Which group should serve
as an good example for other groups to learn
from? Answer You dont know!
 
 
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• Method
• To assist companies with performance of
  meaningful inspections, a process needs to be
  established that
• Provides for grading of results versus pass/fail
• Defines quantifiable criteria to guide efforts
• Can be revised as required to address changes
• Supports forward looking indicators
• For optimum utility, inspection criteria should
  be developed in a collaborative effort with
  management and task level personnel

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Theoretical ESH Inspection Groupings
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Detailed Inspection Criteria ESH Inspection
Groupings
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• Method
• To assist with identifying levels of compliance,
  numerical scores are provided.
• Complaint Score of 10
• Limited Areas of Noncompliance 5
• Numerous Areas of Noncompliance 1
• In turn, these numerical values are converted
  into percentile values (using total number of
  groups being evaluated serving as baseline)

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• Method
• This process also provides the capability to
  identify the level of severity for areas of
  noncompliance, (severity level definitions should
  be developed with facility/site personnel)
• Minor
• Moderate
• Severe
• To assist with determining appropriate
  corrective actions, supporting discussion is also
  provided for noncompliances

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Theoretical Inspection Results for Selected
Groupings
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• Method
• This approach also allows thresholds to
  established, based upon predetermined criteria
• For example, a score of 70, or less, for fire
  protection would require an in-depth management
  assessment to determine contributing causes of
  the deficiencies
• This approach also permits comparison between
  groups and/or frequency periods.
• To assist with increased ownership of the
  process at the facility/site level, concurrence
  by the cognizant manager is required.

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Theoretical Periodic Reporting of Inspections by
Percent Value
Group
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• Application Considerations
• Inspection criteria can be revised when 100 of
  goal is
• consistently being met
• Rewards, incentives, and similar recognition
  mechanisms
• can be clearly linked to desired performance
• To increase overall support for effort,
  inspection criteria and severity definitions,
  should be developed in collaboration with
  management and task level personnel

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• Application Considerations (continued)
• Overall performance can be evaluated for
  individual groups and/or discipline areas
• Application of enhanced inspection processes
  can be utilized to drive friendly competition
  between organizations
• This process also provides mechanisms to engage
  personnel throughout the company, particularly
  site/facility management

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• Conclusions
• Use of inspection processes to support
  development of leading performance indicators can
  provide other benefits, including
• Enhanced safety by evaluating overall process
  versus focusing on only individual items
• Reduced costs associated with performance of
  inspections
• Limits potential for the check the box
  mentality
• Increased productivity
• Expanded employee participation
• Enhanced morale

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• Conclusions (continued)
• Other benefits from application of this process
  include
• Provides mechanism to identify discipline areas
  that are not improving and/or meeting
  expectations
• Provides ability to track and trend inspection
  results over defined periods of time
• Allows less than optimum performance to still be
  recognized and/or rewarded
• Perhaps most importantly, use of enhanced
  inspection process allows ESH professionals to
  assist in overall program improvement versus
  having to serve safety cops, issuing yet more
  tickets