The Process Safety Professional. Industrial Experience. Chapter 6/5

Departmentalized Information Flow

We are releasing sections of the book The Process Safety Professional to our subscribers. This week’s post is taken from Chapter 6 ‘Industrial Experience’. We consider the problems to do with information flow.

The current Table of Contents for the book is here.

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FLAG #5 — Departmentalized Information Flow

The fifth flag has to do with information that could help a facility manager determine if he or she has serious safety problems, but where that information is not provided such that corrective actions can be taken in a timely manner. It includes the following vignette.

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The Maintenance Dilemma

No one wants to be the bearer of bad tidings. Therefore, even if the information is passed on, it may get softened in the process, as illustrated in the following fictional example of diluted information flow.

Maintenance Mechanic:
That safety valve is totally unreliable. One day its failure is going to lead to a major explosion. We need to fix it now!

Maintenance Supervisor:
The safety valve is unreliable and it is in a critical service — we must repair it as soon as possible.

Maintenance Manager:
The valve is important, and we will make sure it is repaired at or before the next turnaround.

Plant Manager:
All valves requiring maintenance work have been identified, and will be repaired on schedule.

Operations Vice President:
I am proud to report that we have an effective and proactive maintenance program — all opportunities for improvement have been identified.

Of course, the above vignette is a parody, but many managers could probably report a similar sequence of communication events having occurred at some point in their own career.