Proving compliance to well-defined and explicitly stated regulations sounds simple -- follow the rules, right? Yet, like many things in life, it's much easier said than done. In practice things get messy, the world moves quickly, and in the run of a day thinking about documentation to prove regulatory compliance can slip down the priority list.
On a day when no one is hurt and everything goes as planned, it may seem like a small step skipped. However, on the day the regulator comes knocking and says, "prove it," the attention to detail and due diligence of having the proper tools and following processes will be the difference between a lot of long hours and the satisfaction of knowing the processes have been followed and the right information is easily retrieved.
The sheer volume of information required to be above board in high-compliance environments can be overwhelming. The large number of stakeholders compound the complexity, and legacy tools and content simply don't cut it anymore.
What follows is a summary of a recent project with one of Innovatia's midstream oil and gas clients. It relies on the experience of information architects, the expertise of the client's engineers, consultation with the client's operators and a cutting-edge procedure life-cycle management tool.
The existing system was a legacy system involving manual procedure creation and management of computer- or paperbased documents. Procedures were often inconsistent, sometimes incorrect, and usually hard to find and use efficiently. In one problematic instance, operators were expected to respond to an alarm within 10 minutes using a mammoth paper binder as a guide -- not only an unreasonable expectation, but unsafe and inefficient, as the fallback position in the case of no resolution within 10 minutes was to shut down operations.
The guiding principles of the project were to focus on the user and facilitate continuous improvement whenever possible. The end goals of the project were to make compliance easier to achieve and to exceed the minimum of regulatory compliance.
To meet these goals, Innovatia began content conversion guided by the information architecture, delivered custom-built writer training modules, and implemented Procedure Accelerator⢠as the backbone of its new procedure life-cycle management strategy. The writers authored according to the established writing standards and published procedures at a rate previously thought impossible. Procedures are now deployed on any device with built-in feedback loops for continuous improvement. Metadata attached to all actions within a procedure allow for the real-time execution tracking of procedures and after-the-fact analysis to support compliance management and continuous improvement.
The forward thinking of this client's team will significantly impact operations, safety and the bottom line. The early introduction of change management, collaboration with the team, and utilization of world-class methodologies and technology made this possible. To ensure the solution exceeded the highest standards, both the client and the regulator hired third-party auditors to evaluate the system, and both were beyond satisfied.
This project is a great example of an integrated knowledge solution developed to meet a client's real-world problems with a solution tailor-made to perform under the toughest circumstances.
For more information about Procedure Accelerator, content life-cycle management tools and more projects like this one, visit www.innovatia.net or call (800) 363-3358.