Contractor safety has been a hot topic for many years. This increased focus has resulted in legislation around the world clarifying safety obligations of companies and contractors and an increase in the number of companies offering contractor safety management support. Despite this, many companies are still struggling with the challenge of contractor safety performance plateauing, which invites exploration of the underlying issues.

While working with many companies in heavy industry, including the energy, utility, and mining sectors, we have observed that many of the traditional approaches to contractor safety management have real value. However, what separates exceptional contractor safety programs from those that are less successful is usually the quality of executing key elements, such as the efforts taken to qualify contractors and the safety management activities in the workplace where the work is being executed.

"When it comes to measuring safety performance in Heavy Industry, there are many long-held beliefs, including the ideas that safety performance ought to be measured through leading and lagging indicators, that metrics support improvement through the “what gets measured, gets done” philosophy, and that if metrics are moving the right way, the company is getting safer. But, what if all those longheld beliefs have flaws, or, at least, limitations?" Download now to learn more.

"Improving safety performance within heavy industry has increasingly become the top priority for majority of organizations across North America. It is a complex challenge of navigating the high-risk nature of the work amidst the challenging operating, compliance driven and transformative environment. Increasingly, companies are implementing an array of safety systems and protocols, including risk, stakeholder and safety management systems, along with robust human capital management programs. However, in many cases, safety performance is still plateauing and safety metrics, including perception surveys, injury frequency and severity rates are indicting a lack of forward progress."

Some topics discussed are:

• Eliminating intrinsically unsafe conditions
• Developing safe work procedures and safety management systems
• Error reduction and human performance
  

With the constant flow of new optimizing technologies and an ever-increasing emphasis on cost reduction, efficiency, and productivity, it is surprising to see Utilities continue to struggle with something as fundamental as the effective planning, scheduling, and execution of work.However, given that the planning, scheduling, and execution process is so critical in Utilities, it begs the question: Why is it often such a major source of frustration? We observe that the difficulties are not normally complex technical issues – Utilities are good at those. We tend to see that planning and scheduling difficulties are often people issues, and resolvable ones at that.

While The Engine Room acknowledges that every organization is different, we do see a “Top 4” of the most common non-technical problems that can affect the planning, scheduling, and execution process.

Exclusive interview with Chris Bloomer, President of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association (CEPA). As the CEPA celebrate its 25th anniversary, Chris sat down with OneBridge Solutions' Tim Edward to discuss the state of Canada's pipeline industry.

In the lead up to the Operational Excellence in Energy, Chemicals & Resources Summitt, we sat down with Michelle George, Vice President of Engineering & Asset Management at Enbridge Gas Distribution. Michelle tells us about how Canada's largest energy delivering company is driving operational excellence through their integrated management system and their quantitative approach to risk management. 

Michele Harradence, Vice President of Gas Transmission shares how Enbridge is redesigning their operating model following their acquisition of Spectra Energy.

RiskPoynt’s Bruce Chumley sat down with Occidental’s Manager of Safety and Process Risk, Stewart Behie to find out how the oil, gas and chemicals giant is identifying and monitoring operational risk at the asset level, and how they are leveraging technology to improve the outcome of safety critical decisions.

In the lead up to this year’s Operational Excellence in Oil & Gas Summit, we sat down with Kal Johnson, Director of HSSE at Cameron LNG. Kal is accountable for developing and implementing an overarching corporate and operations HSSE management system, while maintaining strategic security infrastructure to meet MARSAC and USCG requirements. Kal has been working on a robust hazard identification program.

In the lead up to this year’s Operational Excellence in Energy and Utilities, we sat down with Mark Hutcherson, Director of Operational Excellence at ConocoPhillips. Mark discusses how the American energy giant is taking the next step toward digital transformation and driving real time production optimization. 

Leigh Mork, Director of Maintenance and Reliability Integration at Suncor Energy, shares Suncor’s approach to mitigating asset risk and how to use asset information to enable safe, reliable and cost effective operations. 

Exclusive interview with Jim Wetherbee, the only American astronaut to have commanded five missions in space, a former Vice President of Operational Leadership at BP and author of the recently published “Controlling Risk"! 

In this exclusive interview, Jim discusses the ten common adverse conditions that existed in companies that experienced a major safety incident and how to use the presence and severity of these conditions as indicators to determine if your organization may be drifting toward a disaster.

Download the full interview to find out more.