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Many influential organizations are pushing for the energy industry to adapt to ideas centered in environmental and cultural sustainability. In 2017 the United Nations Development Program, the International Finance Corporation and IPIECA published a report detailing private-sector Oil & Gas sustainable development goals, and expressing how these should be integrated into standard operations.​
Additionally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics expressed concerns that women make up only one-fifth of all U.S. oil and gas extraction jobs, while otherwise occupying 47 percent of the labor force. Encouraging more female representation in Oil & Gas represents a one avenue of meeting the cultural sustainability standards being encouraged by industry leaders.

Whether dealing with cultural or environmental sustainability, a management infrastructure that incorporates strong product, resource and employee management processes is key. Innovations that ensure that all employees have quick access to material safety data sheets, and effective response planning through handheld devices can be critical to reducing the effect of environmental hazards. Collecting and managing employee and customer feedback can help create inclusive hiring and employee retention polices, as well as internally address gender or ethnic based grievances or discrimination.

Simply implementing management policies that are mindful of sustainability imparities can create an internal culture of sustainability, which will inherently direct future planning in line with these development goals.
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To aid with sustainability efforts, many progressive oil and energy organizations are turning to software to help manage their development and implementation efforts.  For example, tracking changes made to procedures and policies while attempting to implement sustainability practices is crucial when it comes to understanding the impact and effectiveness of such changes.

For more information on how Accupoint Software can help you manage your sustainability goals, please contact us today.
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​The current Covid 19 pandemic reminds us employees, operations, supply chains and customer relations can all be affected by unplanned disruptions.  That is why every business needs a plan to meet potential interruptions with clarity, confidence and calm.

​​That being said, the development of a set of comprehensive contingency plans comes in handy.  A good contingency plan will identify likely disruptions and identify develop action items designed to minimize the impact on operational performance.
Contingency planning process to ensure business continuity with Accupoint Software.
​Simply put, contingency planning is an outline of procedures to follow in case some major event impacts your business operations. Technically, the contingency plan is a document that identifies the actions the organizations will take when a specified incident happens.  The goal is to minimize the incident’s impact to your operations, employees, supply chain and customers. Contingency plans should be developed for all critical processes, tasks and systems.

To that end, we have detailed 8 steps for effective contingency planning:
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  1. Start by setting up a committee and chose a lead.  The leader will provide the skills, tools and direction so that each department can develop its own plans.  Contingency planning is a big task, so involve the appropriate number of people to maximize input.
  2. Record the business processes for each department.
  3. Identify issues (real and potential) that can negatively impact business operations.
  4. Review the issues list with department managers and rank contingency priority to help focus plan development.
  5. Create plans to address each prioritized issue.  Try to minimize the number of steps required to resume operations.
  6. Test your contingency plans. If a portion of the plan is flawed or conflicts with other contingency plans, modify and then reassess the plan.
  7. Formalize and communicate the plan with applicable personnel within the organization.
  8. Finally, make sure to review the plan at pre-determined intervals to insure continued relevance.   This review will help identify areas for improvement.

By following the steps outlined above, you will be well on your way to creating effective contingency plans that chart realistic tactics and achievable goals in addressing potential operational disruptions.

To learn more about how Accupoint can help streamline your contingency planning, please contact us today.
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Stay safe and healthy!
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When it comes to ensuring the safe handling of potentially dangerous chemicals, communication is critical. Because of this, OSHA's Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) requires that any chemical manufacturer, distributor, or importer provide Safety Data Sheets (SDS) to communicate these hazards (OSHA, 29 CFR 1910.1200(g)).

SDSs are designed to be user-friendly and must communicate the properties of each chemical product, including: the physical, health, and environmental hazards; protective measures; and safety precautions for handling, storing and transporting the chemical.

Employers are required to ensure that SDSs are readily accessible to employees for all hazardous chemicals in their workplace. Furthermore, employees must have immediate access to the information within their work area, as well as access to SDS backups in the case of power outage or emergencies.  Meeting these requirements can be cumbersome and time consuming.  As a result, many organizations are turning to compliance management solutions to help meet the  standards.

For instance, employees can quickly access digital SDS’s using mobile devices at point of operation, while management can use software to universally update all SDSs as information changes.   Quick access to safety information makes all the difference in the handling, transportation, storage, and manufacture of the applicable chemical.  In addition, inventory management is also important, as chemical quantities are constantly changing, and on-hand quantities can drastically impact hazards and the prevention procedures necessary.

The process of identifying chemicals present in the workplace requires advanced processes to ensure that information is available to stakeholders and is updated in real time.   In today’s global operating environment, an SDS management solution is critical to guarantee compliance to multiple regulatory and legal requirements.

For more information on how Accupoint Software can help you manage your Safety Data Sheet program, please contact us today.

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During the stages of conception, designing, building, operating, and decommissioning in the petroleum industry, a quantitative risk analysis is a primary tool used to analyze the safety and risk management in an effort to control hazards and operate safely. The quantitative risk analysis can identify potential hazards, determine the likelihood of them occurring, and the consequences of the hazard should it arise.
 
Why Quantify Risk?
Your company needs to be reliable and safe in the competitive petroleum industry. The potential harm to employees, the environment, assets, reputation and the local community should be priority number one. 

How Do You Quantify Risk?
In most scenarios, the use of a HAZID can be applied. A HAZID can help identify the potential risks during installation or operation of your company's work. Often, a hazard can become a series of hazards as they break down into a plethora of hazards, also known as an event tree. That is, when one operation breaks down, the HAZID can pinpoint the likelihood of the consequential events that may happen. Not only can the HAZID determine what might happen next, the HAZID can also quantify the probability of the events to follow.

Planning for the Future
With the risk analysis tools in place, your company can easily plan for the future by identifying your risks and quantifying the likelihood of their occurrence. With proper risk management, your company can avoid unnecessary costs, downtime, and injury to workers. 

For more information on how Accupoint’s solutions can help you manage your risk assessment process, please contact us today. 
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Companies handling potentially dangerous or sensitive materials, like chemical treatment plants and oil refinement corporations, put a premium on safety. Implementing safety protocols and verifying them during operations is essential. The following are a few safety management ideas and tools for cultivating a safety-oriented atmosphere.

1. Constant and Dedicated Safety Training
A workforce requires precipitous safety training reminders, no matter how much extensive training they have had in the past. This may seem like an obstacle to productivity; however, each worker having a comprehensive understanding of safety standards and protocols saves time and money in the long run. Conducting dedicated safety training courses helps employees realize their active roles in maintaining safe operational standards.

2. Use Safety Management Technology
Technology can play a vital role when it comes to increasing safety at places like oil processing plants where standards and process are strictly documented. Programs like the OpX Process Safety Management system helps by creating a safe working environment by operating intuitively to delegate critical tasks systematically to essential personnel. Any management software should easily scale, have a simplistic roll-out and implementation procedure and reduce the need for burdensome training. With this software, you can address and eliminate compliance gaps as they are discovered.

3. Develop an effective Safety Program
Every processing or refinement plant should have in place or be developing, a safety and health program with policies, a budget, and procedures tailored to their location. This shows an appreciation for the workforce and will help to ensure the security of your resources and their adherence to OSHA standards and guidelines, reinforcing your company’s bottom line. In fact, modeling your intra-company safety guidelines after strict governmental standards, while tailoring them to suit the dynamic of an oil processing firm better, will keep employees hard a work help to avoid daily hazards.

4. Be Active and Pro-active
Taking charge and actively applying safety protocols conveys the fact that you take safety management seriously. You should develop safety initiatives that require the participation of executives, you, and your bosses to take part.  Part of implementing your safety program must include the cultivation of a culture focused on safety, which can only be accomplished with the involvement of leadership. Work closely with the team utilizing training sessions, applying technology and work site analyses whenever possible.

To find out more about how Accupoint Software can help you reach a new standard in production and safety, contact us today.
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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:
  • Motor Vehicle Accidents
  • Contact Injuries
  • Fires and Explosions
  • Slips, Trips and Falls
  • Confined Space Accidents
 
Health-related hazards include:
  • Chemical hazards-toxins, irritants, asphyxiants
  • Biological hazards-viruses, parasites, bacteria
  • Physical hazards-noise, vibrations, radiation
  • Economic hazards-overuse and repetitive stress injuries, awkward postures
  • Psychosocial hazards-overwork, isolated sites, violence
 
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:

  1. Planning-identify and assemble relevant staff, obtain regulatory and process requirements.
  2. Risk Identification-use the list above as a baseline and add any other risks particular to your operation.
  3. Risk Assessment-what procedures are in place for prevention? how have they failed? what is the result of failure? what new procedures are necessary?
  4. Risk Recording-formally document Risk Assessment findings with respect to pertinent regulations and requirements.
  5. Risk Control-define and implement new procedures for prevention and mitigation of identified risks.
  6. Follow On Assessment-ensure new procedures are in place and evaluate their effectiveness.
  7. Monitor and Review-repeat this process at regular intervals to capture new risks, refine procedures and improve outcomes.
 
3) Design a program that works. Effective injury management programs must satisfy the following requirements:

  1. Ensure site safety by evaluating all processes and workflows for potential risk and establishing comprehensive prevention and mitigation protocols.
  2. Empower all workers to protect themselves by making safety procedures straightforward and as simple as possible; training must be thorough, frequent and accessible.
  3. Relates directly to regulatory and audit requirements as well as other internal and external reporting structures, to maximize transparency and minimize administrative burden.
  4. Is thoroughly documented so that workers, trainers, executives and external regulators have clearly-defined expectations.
 
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.
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Keeping your employees safe in the work place should be a top priority. This is especially true in the oil and gas industry.  To that end, today’s post will discuss why HSE management is important and some techniques you can apply to your business plan.
 
Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) involves creating processes for identifying workplace hazards, reducing accidents and minimizing exposure to harmful situations and substances.  This is accomplished by developing detailed operating procedures and then effectively communicating the information to your team. It is important to ensure that the information has been internalized and must be monitored to verify that it is followed.  The main goal is to maintain a safe and productive work environment. 

Why HSE Management is Important

  • It prevents your business from being fined for unsafe environments.
  • It will help you keep production levels up.
  • It protects your company from liability and a bad reputation.

How to Get Employees to Comply

Employees must complete hours of training that many people find boring and useless. To keep them interested, you should develop a safety compliance plan that is interactive, interesting, and to-the-point.

  • Design the training to help your employees, keeping in mind their backgrounds and what they already know.
  • Keep the training session short. Break up the information into several sessions if necessary.
  • Use bullet points for large amounts of information.
  • Choose carefully which topics you want to cover, to avoid information overload.
  • If possible, add humor to your lessons. This will help employees connect on a different level and make the training more enjoyable for everyone.
  • Make the trainings available online. This will allow employees to work on it from virtually any location, encouraging faster completion.

Accupoint Software provides a variety of HSE management solutions that improve operations and help businesses sort through complicated and ever-changing safety regulations. To learn more about how can help, contact us.
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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.
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Per the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), every business must keep records and safety information about the chemicals they use. These records, called Material Safety Data sheets (MSDS) or Safety Data Sheets (SDS) list many types of information about the chemicals, including toxicology, ecological information, and fire-fighting measures. As part of the petroleum industry, properly organizing and managing your MSDS is important for many reasons.
 
To Comply with OSHA

OSHA requires efficient management and organization of MSDS. If OSHA decides to perform an audit, they will check to see if you have MSDS readily available, along with other important safety documentation.  Each chemical used in your facility must have an MSDS and a corresponding label on the chemical container to comply.
 
Many Types of Chemicals

The petroleum industry uses many types of chemicals in oil refineries, especially gasoline, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas, and other types of fuels. These chemicals can be dangerous if proper safety procedures are not known. The MSDS for each chemical will list this information so it is readily available to all employees. Efficient management of MSDS is crucial because there are so many types of chemicals used in the petroleum industry.
 
For the Safety of Your Employees

One of the main reasons OSHA requires MSDS is in case of emergency. If there is an accident and a chemical gets into an employee's eye, another employee can look up the MSDS and find out how to treat the affected employee. Another example of an emergency situation is a fire. If a chemical fire breaks out, it is important for employees to know how to fight the fire or alert firefighters about the chemical. Having readily available and organized MSDS is imperative in these situations.
 
Contact us today to find out how Accupoint Software can help you organize the management of your MSDS program.
 
Happy New Year.
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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!

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