What is a pipeline safety management system (SMS) from your perspective? I think a safety management system is a systematic way to think about work. To me the
best safety management system is when you don’t even know it’s there. It’s just how you do your day to day activities. What are the benefits of a pipeline SMS?
I think you can see in our own data with Plains how we’re improving over time. We have a fiveyear journey to zero incidents strategy, and we’re hitting it consistently year after year. And the only way you can do that is to be very systematic in your approach. By using the safety management system’s plan, do, check, act model, if you’re not seeing the results you want, you partner with different levels of the organization and investigate
to see what you can do differently. You then implement changes from the review process and continue the cycle until you hit your end goal. Last December, pipeline
operators from across the country gathered in Fort Worth, TX to share their experiences
implementing a pipeline safety management system at their company. Participants ranged
from large cross-country transmission pipeline companies to small local distribution
systems. They came together with the common goal of sharing their stories and learning from each other. The following are reflections of two participants at the Fort Worth workshop. These interviews were edited for brevity and clarity.
PERSPECTIVES ON IMPLEMENTING A PIPELINE SMS
Pipeline Industry SMS Workshop, Fort Worth, TX, December 2019 How is focusing on PSMS elements like incident investigations and lessons learned making a difference?
I think you can see where we’re making a real difference. You can see it through the Operations Management System (Plains’ safety management system) field assessments that Plains does. As an example operations personnel a few years ago may not have understood what is entailed with the incident investigation or lessons learned process.
By using the plan, do, check, act model to make improvements for a couple of years, now in more recent surveys operations personnel are asking for specific lessons learned types, and they’re giving us feedback on what works well for them, what they want to see more of, and things of that nature. So, it’s a very collaborative effort. How did implementing your SMS make your safety efforts more systematic? Best way to answer is through a real example. One of the things we implemented through our SMS system was a systematic way for operations to report good catches, close calls and incidents. Note that other companies refer to “good catches and close calls” as “hazard identifications and
near misses.”
The data funnels into Plains’ electronic incident management system, and company wide
personnel see a daily summary of events that were submitted. Based on the risk associated with each event, the investigation requirements change, such as who is involved, data collected, and time to complete. All events are reviewed by
the corporate investigation and operations risk teams and based on trends or high risk events, lessons learned bulletins are written and sent out once a month across the organization. And if an event submitted has something that needs to be
immediately shared, the corporate investigation team will send out a safety field alert aimed at specific areas of the organization where the alert applies and that lists specific actions to take.
How important is leadership involvement in implementing a pipeline SMS?
After recommended practice 1173 was published in 2015 Plains executive leadership sent a letter stating that Plains will comply with all of the sub elements listed. And all along the way, leadership has been very supportive in that they recognize SMS is a process and that plan, do, check, act is necessary to continuously improve.
So, as a sub element owner you’re allowed to implement a solution. If it doesn’t work perfectly then as part of the way a safety management system works, you utilize field feedback to change your approach and continue to drive action. Leadership supports us in our efforts by recognizing that no new work process will be perfect on day one.
One of the things that Plains leadership does is continue to demonstrate support by walking the talk. For example, Plains has a good catch reward program, which recognizes personnel for submitting high quality good catches. When the Executive VP and COO of Plains was visiting the St. James facility, he sought out one of the good
catch winners to personally thank him and discuss the value he saw in the submission. Folks hear about this, and it just engages the whole workforce.
How did your company implement SMS? Plains started out by having a dedicated OMS
team partner with the organization to conduct a detailed gap assessment against RP 1173. Subelement owners were identified and tasked with closing gaps utilizing a phased approach to ensure that the operations field personnel were not overwhelmed by change. Each sub-element owner identified interactions with other sub-elements and
defined key milestones.
The OMS team conducts annual field assessments to measure progress against gaps. We’ve seen the field gap assessment scores improve over time and have utilized field feedback in the plan, do, check, act process to continuously improve. It’s been a very positive, collaborative and supportive process.
JOHN SOENNING
Senior Director of Program Safety,
Plains All American Pipeline, LLP
http://pipelinesms.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/2019-SMS-Annual-Report-Final.pdf