(88c) Culture Transformation – Enculturation to Acculturation

Enculturation is learning the culture you grow up in and Acculturation is learning a culture different from that in which you grew up. The situation becomes more challenging when you are doing business in a developing country having low literacy rate and high cultural & language barriers.

This paper describes the cultural transformation, behavioral systems and improvement initiatives Fatima Fertilizers Limited has successfully implemented in past 9 years to improve the safety culture dimensions and to ensure compliance with standards. This resulted in improvement of FFL safety records to world class level. Below are the major results we have achieved so far,

1. No lost time injury since 2012.
2. 1^st fertilizer company across the globe to achieve 60 million plus safe man-hours.
3. Sustained “Excellence” in Process Safety Management by DuPont since 2017.
4. Plant on-stream factors improved from 80% in 2012 to 97.8% in 2020.
5. Production improved from 0.97 Million ton in 2012 to 1.475 Million ton in 2020.
6. Awarded Distinction by British safety council in international safety award twice in 2019 & 2021.
7. Best In Country Award by British Safety Council in 2020.
8. Awarded 04 consecutive gold awards by Royal Safety for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA).
9. Global leader in safety performance award among 72 companies worldwide by International Fertilizer Association (IFA).
10. Safety leadership award by US National Safety Council (NSC).

The paper will describe the details of implementation process and maturing steps of systems on Behavioral/Cultural aspects and elements such as Process Safety Leadership & Engagement Program, Management Safety Audit Program, Perception Surveys, Operational Discipline & Excellence, Field vigilance & Area audits Program, Line Management Responsibility, Observation Reporting, Analysis & Action Plans and Contractor Safety Management Program etc which resulted in achievement of such remarkable results.

The paper also includes the Organizations' vision & future plans on sustaining and further improving process safety culture as per changing & challenging scenarios across the globe especially post COVID-19.