Improvements to health, safety and environmental (HSE) performance data analysis are revealing insights that allow us to tailor HSE audits to be more effective in revealing risks. HSE audits are designed to assess compliance with laws, regulations and company governance, ensuring that we maintain our long-standing commitment to responsible operations.
In 2019, data analytics processes were applied to streamline the audit data collection effort. The data was aggregated and centralized, allowing for application of data analytic processes and visualizations. The team could now see both incident and audit data related to our Life Saving Rules. That’s when a disconnect was discovered between the number of lifting incidents that occurred and the number of audit findings related to lifting operations.
“You would expect the number of lifting incidents to roughly correlate to audit findings related to lifting,” said Matt Garner, director, Health and Safety Assurance. “When the data showed a trend of more lifting incidents than audit findings, we adjusted our audits to place a special focus on lifting operations.”
Findings revealed two immediate non-conformances to the Life Saving Rule related to lifting operations as well as safe lifting procedures. One instance involved workers who were under a suspended load, potentially placing themselves in the line of fire. Another finding involved noncompliant lift plans and lifting equipment inspections.
Data insights helped the HSE team focus more on activities that pose risk to worker safety, and verify robust defenses are in place. Further data analysis contributed to the company’s decision to add a new corporate Life Saving Rule regarding line of fire in order to bring increased attention to these hazards.
“It is rewarding to see how data analytics can help HSE professionals identify insights that will lead to actions, especially actions that can prevent events,” said Jeremy Pryor, HSE data analytics coordinator. “We are just starting to scratch the surface on what insights our HSE data can provide.”