Predicting Future Accidents – Was I Right?

The article below was written over three years ago (March 3, 2021). Read it and see if you believe that it predicted some of the accidents we are experiencing. (For example, see THIS LINK.)

What is COVID-19 Delaying?

I was reading an article about maintenance at refineries being delayed to cut costs.

Why was the maintenance delayed? To cut costs. COVID had caused a drop in refining production of about 10%, which meant that budgets had to be cut. And where’s a good place to cut budgets? Maintenance!

How many other industries have delayed maintenance to cut costs? And how many improvement initiatives have been delayed (or canceled) because the money just wasn’t there because demand was down?

Projections are that demand for many products will return to normal (or close to it) in the second half of 2021. As production increases, people will get busy. Many businesses are trying to continue to operate on a reduced number of employees to make up for profits lost during the pandemic.

Shortcuts Lead to Disasters

We have seen it many times before. Shortcuts lead to accidents. What kind of shortcuts?

• Delayed, backlogged, or canceled maintenance.
• Reduced staffing.
• Excessive overtime.
• Cancelled or reduced training.
• Running systems over capacity.
• Eliminating safeguards to run closer to plant limits.

These shortcuts may even include delaying improvements that were a result of past incident investigations.

What Are You Doing to Stop Shortcuts?

Sometimes, management and workers get away with shortcuts. The delayed maintenance eventually gets performed before something bad happens. Other times, the improvements are backlogged for too long. And the result is…

This isn’t just a refinery problem. This can happen at:

• Power plants
• Hospitals
• Paper mills
• Pharmaceutical factors
• Chemical plants
• Electrical transmission and distribution lines
• Airlines
• Pipelines
• Railroads
• Nuclear plants

What are you doing to ensure that your management is making conservative decisions?

First, what is a conservative decision? See this previous article…

Would you like to learn more about conservative decision-making?

Attend a Stopping Human Error Course. Where and when? See the link below.:

https://store.taproot.com/courses#sFilters=8!83

Do you want more information? Contact us by CLICKING HERE or calling 865-539-2139.