Millennial Strategies to Capture Baby-Boomer Knowledge

Risk data is some of the most difficult data in the world to read, digest and understand. Focusing on Process Hazards Analysis (PHA) reports specifically, although the framework and guidewords are followed, for the most part, universally it is still difficult for someone with fresh eyes to pick up a report, read it and know what is important. Never mind having the time to wade through 500-5,000 pages of risk assessment information or multiple risk assessments looking for the specific piece of equipment that they need to know about.

Wouldn’t it be great if a new operator or engineer, starts on Monday morning and by noon hour knew the most important risk information relevant to the facility or project they’re working on? Why does this matter? Thinking about critical defeats processes, understanding critical procedures and which alarms matter most and need to be prioritized there are many times and processes where this information will be important.

A solution will be presented to make your risk data user friendly for millennials and all generations who are familiar with basic search engine functionality. Being able to search risk data for specific equipment tags and seeing that data in easy to understand, interactive visualizations puts it in context for what they need when they need it. Understanding the relationships between initiating events, safeguards/ IPLs (mitigative/ preventative) and consequences using bowties to tie it all together.

In addition, gamification of risk data will be presented with online, modern and interactive puzzles that can help people understand in minutes the strategies used to safeguard facilities and process units. It also adds a fun factor, competition and other nuances to engage and excite people about safety.

The future workforce needs better solutions to help enable them to leverage the knowledge of the baby boomers and generations that went before. Tens of thousands of experienced workers, who are often the SME in PHA sessions, are retiring on a weekly basis each with decades of knowledge. Although significant knowledge is being lost, the information captured in documents like PHA reports can help the next generations to learn, in second and minutes, what others took a lifetime to build. This knowledge transfer is only possible when presented in an accessible and consumable format.