How does one fight complacency in everyday tasks? 9

[Boiler1]

Hello,

Lately, for no apparent reason the organisation I’m working at experienced a series of incidents, mainly to human error.
It’s the same team, the same procedures in place and yet the focus somehow seem to periodically slip away. None of the incidents had an H&S impact, however all had caused a downtime in the process.

In some instances, people have even skipped the procedural steps in assessing and documenting the risks as they have done the same task dozens of times.
After each rough patch the same thing is repeated – procedures are updated to catch the likes of the latest incident and more training introduced.
This works for a while and then the complacency ( I believe) takes over causing more incidents.

Is there any ‘magic wand’ to stay on top of peoples focus on everyday tasks. Any proven methods?

Regards

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

There are other systems apart from STAR.

I tend to use DODAR

Diagnose
options
Decide
Act
Review

I suspect aviation doesn't like STAR because we can't stop and there is always a time limit.

There is also SADIE which is more team process

Share information
Analysis
Develop a solution and share
Implement
Evaluate

But they all follow the same principle. It follows an observe orientate decide act loop

 

[IRstuff]

One avenue might be job rotations; changing roles every year or so and cycling through 2 or 3 positions would mean 2 to 3 years before you do the same thing again and you'd have to re-orient and refresh on procedures.

I've had the same job for 20+ years, but haven't really done the same thing more than a few times or a few years.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

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[Latexman]

My company uses SafeStart.

Good Luck,
Latexman

 

[RobWard]

One small thing our company does is try not to use simple tick boxes.
We try to make the recording reflect the fact that something was done - so write down a serial number of the part that was swapped, or record the time that the procedure was carried out.
When presented with a list of tick boxes it's too easy for someone to simply tick all the boxes without carrying out the commensurate action.
We also get them to sign things by name - knowing that if things can point back to you tends to focus the mind a little.
It is an ongoing battle though....!

"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go past." Douglas Adams

 

[RedSnake]

We have this maintenance system where everything is recorded.
It contains everything from spareparts, work orders, time-based maintenance, frequency based maintenance, fault reporting, start and stop times for production and for the maintenance work and so on.

What we do not have!
Is someone who make any type of analysis on this things.
So we have a ton of information but no one uses it for anything, everything is stil made with gut feeling.

Only time someone bothers is when there has been a long production stopp or large breakdown which often have different causes each time and each cause may occur very rarely.
Then all h.ll breaks loos ;-) and a week later all is forgotten.

But all time studies shows that the most time loss is short stops less then 5 minutes, but no one looks for that.

Best Regards A


“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.“
Albert Einstein

 

[moon161]

I used to do tech support for a netzero, a free dial-up ISP, and I got on the team that wrote and maintained the troubleshooting documents. I worked with probably the smartest people I have met for slightly more than minimum wage- an hour's pay would buy probably a dozen donuts and one or two large coffees.

One error message was a bit of a stumper, working through the whole solution drove call time above the goal, so of course, good to reduce it.
So I did research, looking at all of the trouble tickets flagged with the error message, and what action resolved it. I rewrote the solution to put the actions proven most likely to resolve it first, try 2 of the 4, end the call, member to try and connect. Call back for the other two if it doesn't work. Boss was like 'Great job Andy! We'll send it to the client for approval!'. 'Put it back the way it was' Said the client.

Some people are happier with a problem.

 

[moon161]

A friend teaches martial arts, one of them is known to be picky and changeable in small ways- Japanese Kendo Federation Iaido. You'd think that the minutiae of how to draw a sword and strike an imaginary person would be settled and written down for good by now but no the grading standards and instructions are usually and arbitrarily changing in small ways year to year. Many complain, but he said look up variation theory, people learn better that way than rehearsing a static never changing drill.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11858-017-0858-4

http://www.vkmaheshwari.com/WP/?p=212

TL;DR

Mix it up, it's said to work better that way.

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

Do many of you work with safety management systems? or SMS for short?

 

[CWB1]

It all comes down to process and accountability. Whether you work in engineering, manufacturing, or otherwise, if your process is good and the downstream reviews/inspections hold you accountable then your quality will remain high. LOTS of folks find the repetition of process-driven work boring, but it yields the best result over time. Whenever I see an internal failure my first question isn't "who did this," its "who APPROVED this?"

In some instances, people have even skipped the procedural steps in assessing and documenting the risks as they have done the same task dozens of times.

That would result in instant termination of the employee and likely their supervisor in well-run companies. Skipping standard process and pencil-whipping approvals are both willful disregard of standard process and unforgivable. Should that result in a H&S failure, both your employer and the entire food chain up through the engineering ranks could face criminal charges.

 

[RedSnake]

I am afraid that is not the way things work on this side of the puddle.
Even though the regulations are quit the same, it takes a lot more to fire someone or even get someone up the food chain facing criminal charges.

Here the first question is not "who did this," or "who APPROVED this"?
But, How can prevent this from happening again?

And the answer is most often rebuilding or preventing by electrical or mechanical safety measures.
1. Can you reconstruct the hazard away.
2. Can you safeguard it away.
3. If this isn't possible, you can make a instruction.

In my more then 30 years at the company , there is no one who have ever gotten fired for bad decision making, or bosses not for enforcing the safety regulations, or employees not for keeping to them, they often get moved to some other part of the factory if they screw up enough times, where they do not present a hazard to themselves or others.

The four times I heard some one being fired in 30 years, it was two for stealing and two for using the company facilities for having sex with a prostitute.

My first mechanic died four times due to a work related accident.
Three times the first night and then finally after several years in a wheelchair being lame from the neck down.
There was charges but no one was convicted.

It was a pneumatic cylinder on the outside in the winter that hade goten an ice plugg so it stopped working.
He hade turned of the air supply but the pressure had built up inside the cylinder so when he toke the hose away and the ice disappeared the cylinder started moving and his neck was hit by the feeder going forward.
He was also at the time standing on a pallet in the air held by a forklift because they didn't take the time getting a safety basket.

That is why we, who remembers, have a saying. -Air is for breathing, nothing else!

Best Regards A




“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.“
Albert Einstein

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

For some short term gains earn more than doing it right...

 

[bones206]

Smart phones are also slowly turning our brains to mush and making it hard to maintain focus and "live in the moment".

 

[RedSnake]

Smart phones well that's why I don't have one

We use something called SQD Safety Quality Delivery

Before we wrote this reports on preprinted small papers, for Uncertain Conditions, Uncertain Behavior, Incidents, Accidents and Deaths.
Now we are suppose to do it via an app, I think the reports have declined with at lest 4/5 since then, nobody asks for them anymore.
Before they did it every morning on the morning meeting but not anymore.

And then we have
SS-EN 50110-1 Operation of electrical installations – Part 1: General requirements

But this one is hard to follow since most of the regulation is about many people working together at the same time. Mostly when working in the factory you are alone so you are in a way all functions at the same time.

Best Regards A

“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.“
Albert Einstein

 

[FacEngrPE]

There are all sorts of ways safety programs can produce unexpected/undesirable results. If the penalties for failing to work "safely" are too high you never find out things that can help us engineers design safety risks our if our workplace. If the risks are too low the need for an effective safety program does not get the necessary attention.
Blindly following OSHA (or any regulators) prescriptive regulations sometimes produces unsafe results.

Safety discussions seem a bit off topic, perhaps this subject deserves it's own thread? Searching this site for "safety" finds relevant threads all over this site, but i find no forum for "safety topics" related discussions exists. Searching eng-tips for safety yields 1068 x 20 = 21360 threads containing the word safety.

Fred

 

[stevenal]

Fred,

Since engineers promise to hold safety paramount, no separate forum is required or desired. Safety is relevant in all these forums and threads, and never off topic.

 

[FacEngrPE]

Fred