Notes from the Mining Best Practices Session at the Summit

Another industry session at the TapRooT® Summit was the Mining Best Practices Session. Here are notes from the facilitator, Ken Scott:

We had a good turnout at the Mining Best Practice Session. Here are some of the comments we captured during the session at the Summit on Friday.

What has worked?

• TapRooT® provided a consistent mechanism to move “out of the box” thinking for incident investigations/causation. Helped to look at all the causes instead of the violations of standards or policies.

Best Practice Ideas…

• One company’s policy was to make up the team from individuals outside of the affected area. They felt it would hold down the preconceived biases and give a fresh look at the incident. Team leaders were selected based on their turn to lead a team and were not assigned. Driven by upper management to identify best practices and reduce risk.
• Teams consist of 3-5 members, including a contract individual if it involves a contractor. Management was committed to giving members time to conduct the investigation. Most reports were completed in 28 days.
• Another comment involved the relationship with contractors. They are pre-qualifying contractors and expect them to perform at the same level as the company. They view the contractor as part of the team and include the contractor’s incident rate as part of the company’s rate. A “one team” concept with contractors participating in most investigations. Where possible, train contractor individuals along with company individuals on the TapRooT® RCA process. What they have found is contractors feel support from the company. It also helps with corrective actions when they involve the contractor. When contractors see this relationship, they strive to reach higher standards in their safety/health program.

One area that they would like to address at the next Summit would be team leader training. The skills to manage and control the incident investigation process when several individuals are involved.