President’s Message
Operational Excellence and
Health Protection
Given the slow recovery of the U.S.
economy and recent high-profile operational failures in the oil exploration and
mining industries, industrial hygienists
may be expected to improve safety performance while controlling, if not reducing, costs. As a result, we may face
an apparent choice between supporting
management and supporting the worker
in eliminating health and safety hazards. So how do we simultaneously
achieve cost containment, business
goals, and worker safety objectives? To
answer this question, we must consider
the causes of operational failures.
Two Types of Error
Catastrophic events are caused by a
combination of active and latent errors.
Effects from active errors are observed
almost immediately and are triggered by
worker actions that change equipment or
a system, resulting in an undesired consequence. These errors are typically associated with the performance of frontline
workers, such as equipment operators and
airline pilots. By contrast, the effects of
latent errors usually remain dormant until
a system failure occurs. Latent errors
often reflect deficiencies in organizational
processes or culture, which create conditions that degrade hazard control measures. They are typically associated with
people removed from direct daily work
activities who make decisions that affect
the performance of the system—high-level
decision makers, managers, support staff,
and others. Classic examples of accidents
of this type are Bhopal, the Challenger
space shuttle, and Three Mile Island. The
latent errors associated with these events
occurred long before active errors resulted
in an accident.
We need to consider how the notion
of operational excellence can help us reduce active and latent errors, protect
worker safety, and achieve organizational
objectives. Operational excellence is embedded in the culture of high-performing
organizations, where teamwork and
problem-solving results in continuous
improvement. These organizations identify and mitigate risk, focus on the needs
of the customer, empower employees,
and optimize existing business processes.
Simply put, operational excellence means
doing the right things well, driving innovation and process improvements
that yield a competitive advantage.
These organizations view safety and
quality improvements for employees and
customers as steps toward becoming a
better business enterprise.
We can help our organizations
achieve operational excellence by sys-
tematically managing safety, health, and
environmental protection throughout
their operations. The systematic manage-
ment of risk identification and reduction
programs is a function of an organiza-
tion’s culture. Culture, best defined as
“the way we do things here,” represents
the values, traditions, and beliefs that
drive behavioral norms and expecta-
tions. For operational excellence to be
effective, the culture must promote be-
haviors that support safe and reliable
operations. This means that while we
continue to rely on our engineered
safety systems, we cannot ignore the ac-
tive and latent errors associated with
people. Effective safety cultures recog-
nize that people make mistakes, but
error-likely situations can be prevented.
Practices such as self assessment, event
causal analysis, and sharing of lessons
learned are necessary preconditions for
continuous improvement and accident
prevention.
The Value Strategy
Over the past several years, AIHA has
been developing a tool that can show the
value of industrial hygiene to commercial businesses, government, and industrial organizations. The IH Value
Strategy ( www.ihvalue.org) can promote
operational excellence by demonstrating
how health hazard control measures help
reduce the probability of both active and
latent errors. The decision logic of the
value strategy will help us collect the financial, business, and technical information needed to sell our health protection
solutions. Better analysis of potential
health risks to workers will help us address both latent and active errors and
document the benefits associated with
hazard control measures.
I realize that this may be an oversimplification, but to address the challenge
of meeting business goals, cost control,
and protecting worker safety, I suggest
that we should advocate for and work
toward implementing the principles of
operational excellence in our work as industrial hygienists. By doing so we will
achieve the AIHA mission of “protecting
worker health,” and the people we
serve—employees and employers, families and communities—will be the direct
beneficiaries of our efforts.
MichaelT.Brandt,DrPH,CIH,PMP,istechnicalchief
ofstaffforoperationsatLosAlamosNationalLabo-ratoryinLosAlamos,NewMexico.Hecanbe
reached at (505) 667-1228 or mtbrandt@lanl.gov.
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