(107d) Using Conduct of Operations Principles to Improve Human Performance Under Challenging Economic Conditions

For the past several decades, many facilities in the process industries have been reducing staffing, particular among operators, craftspersons, and first-line supervisors. Gone are the widely recognized but rarely quantified safeguards that help prevent human error such as (1) highly experienced personnel, (2) first-line supervisors who have ?seen it all,? and (3) staffing levels that are flexible enough to accommodate nonroutine operations. These are all generally things of the past. In today's economic environment, first-line supervisors are often asked to take on additional groups, experienced operators are asked to take early retirement with no plans to fill the gap, and staffing levels are reduced to the point where anything beyond normal/planned operations can lead to unacceptable risk. As the baby-boomer generation nears retirement and global economic pressures mount, these trends are likely to accelerate.

Clearly, there is no silver bullet to address this issue. However, one part of the solution is to make operations more systematic, predictable, and reliable. Conduct of operations (ConOps) is the execution of operational and management tasks in a deliberate and structured manner. It institutionalizes human reliability and strives to minimize variations in performance. An effective ConOps program will help individuals in a ?scaled-down? organization make better decisions and fewer errors, and reduce the likelihood and severity of incidents.

This paper addresses some of the ConOps principles that will be included in the Center for Chemical Process Safety's upcoming book on this topic. The paper describes how ConOps principles have been applied at a pharmaceutical plant where, over the past 2 years, there has been a significant reduction in throughput, resulting in a corresponding reduction in staffing. In this case, it is imperative that the organizational changes not adversely impact process safety and product quality. The paper discusses what has been done and what is being planned to ensure that the goal of reducing fixed costs does not adversely impact stringent demands for maintaining process safety performance and product quality standards.