Operational Excellence: Journey to Creating Sustainable Value

CHAPTER 8SAFETY AND HUMAN PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE

PETER G. MARTIN

Vice President Invensys

As mentioned in Chapter 3 and illustrated in Figure 3.1, safety, health, and environment (SHE) and human performance excellence are essential elements of Operational Excellence that contribute to and cross all functions. SHE and human performance excellence are mandatory to gain the working culture, commitment, and ownership required for successful Operational Excellence.

SAFETY PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE

SHE performance excellence is a constant requirement across all domains of Operational Excellence. In the context of Operational Excellence, safety encompasses the safety and health of people, systems, equipment, products, plant, and the environment. It includes process and individual safety. Figure 8.1 shows the relationship between safety and the real-time profitability variables. Safety, heavily considering risk, often provides a primary constraint in industrial operations with processes and materials that can pose safety risks and require active precautions.

Figure 8.1 Safety impact on real-time profitability.

Risk Management

Risk management, explored more fully in Chapter 12, is a critical aspect of Operational Excellence. Industrial organizations tend to be very conservative with respect to process and individual safety and minimize risks as much as possible. Safety risk tends to ...