(27d) From Research to Practice: A Story of Mathematically Predictive Actionable Process Safety Leading Indicator Index

Abstract:
For the past several years, a group of global Energy companies, including nearly all of the super majors, has been working on a research initiative with a common mission to find an actionable leading indicator index to drive Safety and eventually overall Sustainability performance.
This group has been collaborating to provide a large multi-year data set, which contains millions of data records from events such as incidents, investigations, near misses, audits, observations, assessments, and many other routine field-level activities. Since 2008, a rigorous statistical analysis process has been iteratively applied to this data to identify the mix of leading metrics which most effectively predict Safety performance outcomes.
This paper will review the leading indicator research findings drawn from analyzing this large Energy industry data set.
From the analytical research and careful review with this consortium of industry QHSE executives and Subject Matter Experts, the index that was found to best predict the Safety outcome performance of an organization included measurements of (a) proactive event reporting (Reporting Culture), (b) the discipline and consistency in execution of QHSE business processes, (c) the timeliness in closure of important corrective / preventive actions, and finally (d) the responsiveness of supervisors and line managers.
The paper will provide an overview of the analytical process that produced these results and will outline alternatives for applying these insights on leadership performance dashboards. Although the leading indicator research and analytics activities continue annually to strengthen the effectiveness of the leading indices, companies are applying the index to provide actionable leading metrics on executive scorecards. We will outline a sample process for implementing practical, “actionable” leading metrics in each key area to drive line manager / leadership behaviour and ultimately improve QHSE performance outcomes.