BIC Magazine recently held a special roundtable discussion with some of the industry's leading safety experts.
Featuring:
- Seth Arceneaux, safety and security team leader, Rubicon.
- Brittany Francis, director of safety and environmental services -- Global HyCO, Praxair Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Linde plc.
- Christopher Patel, health, safety and environment manager, LyondellBasell Bayport Complex.
- Shawn Ward, senior safety, health and environment manager, Cornerstone Chemical Co.
AND
- David Mihalik, EHS hub director, BASF.
- Matt O'Neil, vice president of HSEQ, Covestro Industrial Park Baytown.
- Ronald Tower, health and safety manager, Phillips 66 Lake Charles Manufacturing Complex.
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BIC: Can you recall one instance where a service company went above and beyond in safety? If so, can you explain?
ARCENEAUX: A new scaffolding contractor on our site was experiencing the normal growing pains associated with getting acclimated to a new site and had various work permit audit/noncompliance findings. In response, the site leadership requested we allow their foremen to attend our "work coordinator" training course. This training course is reserved for Rubicon and select contract personnel to manage the safety performance of contractors while working on our site. The scaffolding contractor was not eligible to participate as approved work coordinators at the time, but requested the training so their foremen could complete self-audits on all their tasks. They were not simply satisfied with compliance, but had a desire to be proactive in identifying and mitigating potential issues. Their safety performance quickly improved and has been sustained over several years, which is a testament to our combined efforts.
PATEL: At one of my previous sites, we had a hydroblasting company that performed work daily. I was concerned about this high-risk work because of the nature of the hazards and my lack of understanding about the methods they used to mitigate risks. One afternoon, the site manager and I were speaking informally with the contractor about their work, hazards and procedures. The contractor offered to create a video explaining their hazards and safe work practices to share with our site.
The video was shown to all employees and contractors on-site at our monthly safety meeting. In fact, the contract organization led the monthly safety meetings and facilitated a question-and-answer session after each meeting. Feedback from the video and safety meetings was overwhelmingly positive, with many participants sharing they now understood their risks and how to manage those risks. An additional benefit was with our behavior-based observation program. Prior to the video, there were many employees and contractors who did not feel comfortable observing hydroblasters simply because they did not have in-depth knowledge about the work. Once our site was educated, observations increased 50 percent for these activities. This is a great example of working together to make the workplace safer and creating a learning environment.
WARD: Every time a service company shares an idea to improve safety at the site, volunteers to lead a safety meeting at one of our contractor supervisor safety meetings, or goes the extra mile in preparing safe work plans for nonroutine or higher-risk jobs ahead of a request, I take notice.
MIHALIK: Our contractors act as a partner on driving the safety culture. They work at multiple locations and are exposed to a variety of new approaches they often share with us. An example of this occurred several years ago around scaffold access safety. One of our contract scaffold companies noted that many of their clients were going to fall restraint systems for access ladders on scaffold. After conferring with other companies in the area, we determined this was a best practice that we should adopt.
O'NEIL: In the polymers and plastics industry, one service that is often critical to success during maintenance and turnarounds is industrial cleaning. Highpressure waterblasting and hydroblasting come with several unique risks that need to be managed in order to execute the work safely. In addition to the potential for chemical contact, the inherent risk of contact with high-pressure water is of great significance. In prior times, this was largely a manual operation, where industrial cleaners used manual lances to clean piping and equipment. Advancements in the industry have led to more opportunities to automate this task and significantly improve the overall safety.
Our industrial cleaning contractors have brought automation at our site to a level where I would say it is only a rare exception for manual cleaning to be required. They also continue to develop improved processes and tools. In the beginning, there was a lot of discussion around loss of efficiency versus increase in safety, since the perception was automated cleaning took more time. However, with the strong safety culture at Covestro, automation has become the standard, and we continue to improve the efficiency part.
TOWER: Over the years, I've had many occasions to acknowledge service providers who have gone above and beyond expectations in the safety area. I find many of the companies we work with have excellent programs, training and safety cultures of their own in place. One of the best examples of this safety attitude was highlighted for me recently when a service provider voluntarily opted out of certain work that was not part of its core business. The provider had an impressive record at the facility and had been rewarded with additional work. The work was financially rewarding for the contractor and continued to increase. Although they did an admirable job, a near-miss incident occurred, which caused their top-level management to do a thorough investigation and conclude they may not be best suited for certain work activities. I was very impressed with their integrity -- their willingness to lose a little business and ensure a contractor with specific knowledge for that type of work could be engaged to reduce risks and further enhance safety.
BIC Magazine would like to thank all those who participated in this roundtable.
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