Processes are worthless without people in Digital Control of Work
Much research has been carried out into the reasons why accidents happen. One insight is that unsafe behaviour is one of the biggest causes. Examples include taking shortcuts, being overconfident, ignoring procedures, distractions, an untidy workplace, failure to plan, etc. All of these can lead to an accident or an incident.
The major influence on behaviour is Site Safety Culture. All behaviour, good and bad, stems from this. An organisation will never be able to exhibit the desired behaviour if the culture is wrong. Safety culture is made up of several elements. The important ones are leadership, collaboration, learning and improvement, professionalism, and understanding.
It cannot be stressed enough how important the overall site culture is in supporting safe Control of Work. Integrating people in digital control of work is necessary to ensure a successful operation. It is the classic weakest link scenario where if one element or role is dysfunctional or poorly performing in any way, the whole system becomes extremely vulnerable. However, if the culture is good, then the capacity to prevent incidents at source is immense.
One of the most effective cultural aspects to develop, is the creation of a collaborative manner of work so all parties associated with the safe control of work can contribute effectively.
Why should you involve people in Digital Control of Work?
Learning capability must be built-in as part of safe systems and processes. However, learning is nothing without improvement. Systems should be built with the capacity for improvement change right at their heart.
If people can see that the recommendations they make for how a process might be improved are adopted, then it gives them a vital attribute – Ownership. If they can further see that they can contribute to the improvement of those systems, then compliance (even in an ever-changing environment) will become routine.
An understanding culture is key. If an organisation takes the time and effort to ensure people have a clear idea of their role (including limitations within it) and understand what outputs they are expected to provide, this goes a long way to establishing correct behaviour.
Professionalism
Professionalism means more than belonging to a qualifying body. Qualifications and skills are very necessary, but it is the way people use them that is most important, including having an attitude that helps to ensure that decisions made aren’t just delivered but that they make sense to others and can be readily adopted.
We from Yokogawa RAP have over 25 years’ experience with control of work. Our RAP System is designed to promote ideal behaviour, by bringing everyone onsite into the process, to enable collaboration between all departments, thereby facilitating a safe culture of work. People are an integral part of our Control of Work.
How do you involve your people in Digital Control of Work?
For more information regarding Digital Control of Work, please visit our Yokogawa RAP website.
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