The petroleum industry requires dangerous work. Protecting personnel from injury requires rigorous monitoring and training protocols and scrupulous attention to reporting, prevention and data analysis when an accident occurs. Here are three fundamental concepts to keep in mind when designing an effective injury management program:
1) Know your hazards. Most injuries in the petroleum industry fall into one of two large categories: safety-related injuries and health-related injuries. Safety-related injuries include those related to:
Health-related hazards include:
Be aware of where each of these may appear in your site or team workflows and make sure preventive and responsive protocols are in place to deal with each. 2) Manage your risks. A robust risk management program has the following 7 steps:
3) Design a program that works. Effective injury management programs must satisfy the following requirements:
If you adhere to the guidelines above when designing and refining your injury management program, you will be able to anticipate problems more effectively and resolve them more efficiently. For more information on how Accupoint’s web-based solution can help you improve your injury management program, please contact us today. Visitor management refers to the tracking and accounting of visitors to a facility. Visitor management is very important in the petroleum industry because of the unique safety concerns that arise. The best practices for visitor management take the visitor from arrival to departure, making the experience both informative and safe for everyone involved.
Register Visitors The visitor management process begins with registration. This should be done electronically when a new visitor arrives. The visitor's name, business, and time of arrival will be recorded. At this time, a badge or other form of identification can be given to the visitor so they are clearly identifiable by employees. Safety With the types of equipment and chemicals used in the petroleum industry, visitor safety is a major concern. Visitors may be given hard hats or other safety equipment as needed. Supervision Making sure visitors are always properly supervised is a best practice for visitor management. Employees involved with supervising visitors should give visitors access to any relevant safety rules before allowing them into the facility. The employee should remain with the visitor for the duration of the visit. Restricted Areas There may be certain areas of your facility that visitors cannot go. Using electronic visitor management, you can restrict these areas to all or certain visitors. You may also be able to track a visitor's movements throughout a facility using their badge. Releasing Visitors Visitors should be released by reversing the registration process. They will need to return their badge and any safety equipment they used. The time they are released will be noted electronically in the visitor record. Using these visitor management best practices, your facility and all visitors will remain safe and well accounted for. To find out how Accupoint Software can help your business with visitor management, contact us. Depending on the industry under discussion, there are varying levels of incidents that can occur which make having an effective incident management plan a necessity. The petroleum industry most certainly falls into the category of operations where establishing and consistently maintaining an effective incident management response is of paramount importance. Understanding that there is no way to completely prevent incidents -- only to successfully and completely prepare for them when they do occur -- is often the difference between a brief interruption in operations and a long-lasting, expensive situation that negatively impacts a firm's reputation. Read on as we outline four basic steps in any solid effective incident management plan.
Develop a communication plan This pertains to internal and external communication. Internally, the specifics of the plan are dependent on different factors unique to your organization (size, location, company culture), but whatever form the communication plan takes, it should be well-defined and able to be acted upon immediately. All internal employees should refer questions to your company spokesperson, with no exceptions. Externally, an honest assessment with a realistic timeline is the best course of action. Ensuring stakeholders and the public in general that you are taking every step necessary to deal with the incident in the timeliest manner possible is vital at this point. Understand how to classify (and respond to) the incident At this juncture, the severity of the incident is quantified. Will it affect operations in just one location, or at multiple company locations? Obviously this step will no doubt be drastically different depending upon the circumstances, but the key here is to understand what threats can result from the incident, and gauge the response accordingly. Formulate a basic framework for costs There's no question that any incident needs a successful resolution. However, a cost analysis is necessary to ensure that the response and recovery to the incident are not out of proportion to the severity of the situation. As with any business decision, a budget helps immensely for this step. Ensure your team is complete Probably the most important step in any effective incident management plan, having the right people in the right places is of utmost importance. The key here is to have a clearly defined plan of action, where all the members of the incident management team understand their role -- without any ambiguity -- and are ready to jump into action immediately. Developing an effective incident management response is certainly an important consideration, especially for companies operating in the petroleum industry. As is the case with any successful concept, ample planning will ensure that your organization is ready to respond -- and act quickly -- should an unexpected incident occur. If you have any questions about developing or maintaining your incident management plan, please don't hesitate to reach out to us -- there's a reason why our compliance management solutions are so highly touted! As we continue into our evaluation of the API Spec Q2 standard, we thought we would concentrate on a topic that many organization struggle with, Customer Satisfaction Bench-marking
The API Spec Q2 standard requires us to monitor and work to improve our customer satisfaction. According to the standard: The organization shall maintain a documented procedure to monitor customer satisfaction. The procedure shall address customer feedback, key performance indicators (KPIs), and other information that the organization monitors to determine whether the organization has met customer requirements. Records of the results of customer satisfaction information shall be maintained (see 4.5). Having the procedure is not the problem. Obtaining actionable information from the customer is. There are many ways to gauge customer satisfaction; some organizations develop in-depth questionnaires while others rely on the Net Promoter (NPS) format. Regardless of the collection method, we need to analyze the responses to develop an action plan to drive our continual improvement efforts. Below is a Deming circle, outlining the major components:
For more information on how Accupoint can help you manage the Customer Satisfaction requirements of the API standards, call us toll-free at 800.563.6250 or visit us at www.accupointsoftware.com. The API Spec Q2 standard has created some confusion regarding the implementation of certain requirements. One frequent conundrum centers around the definition of a critical supplier, as well as the QMS requirements of said supplier.
The standard defines critical, in 3.1.6, as follows: That deemed by the organization or customer as indispensable or essential, needed for a stated purpose or task, and requiring specific action. Let’s start with a simple definition of a critical supplier. The term “critical” and the criteria used in the designation should be determined by your organization and/or customer. That being said, if a supplier is integral to the process or you cannot survive without them that would be a pretty good indicator that the supplier is “critical.” Keep in mind that “critical” can be defined in a variety of ways, so development of internal criteria is essential. Next, let’s look at how to verify that your critical suppliers’ QMS conforms to your internal requirements. You may require your suppliers to have a third party certification in order to be approved. In this case, you can outline the standard(s) required to satisfy your conditions. If you do not require certification, you should develop an audit checklist to verify that their QMS meets expectations. The API Q2 standard requires the following, in section 5.6.1 Purchasing Control: For critical services or service-related product, the criteria for the initial evaluation and selection of suppliers by the organization shall include the following prior to initiation of the purchase agreement:
Remember, you’re only as good as your weakest link. Q2 requires the management and monitoring of the supply chain. Understand that this can create burdens and require additional resources to verify. It is important that you develop a simple process to evaluate and monitor your vendors. To find out about how Accupoint can help you streamline your supply chain management process, call us at 800.563.6250 or visit www.accupointsoftware.com |
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