He will then make his report to the General Manager at the shore base, and to the Safety and Environment Department in Head Office.)
・SE Manager from Tokyo leads investigation (If the incident is serious, the SE Manager from Tokyo will go to the rig and possibly bring a third party team of investigators.)
2.7 Auditing and Review
The final element is Auditing and Review. In any transparent system, Auditing plays a central role in ensuring continuous improvement.
The purpose of HSE auditing is to determine:
・whether or not HSE-MS elements and activities conform to planned arrangements, and are implemented effectively
・The effective functioning of the HSE-MS in fulfilling the company's HSE policy, objectives and performance criteria
・compliance with relevant legislative requirements
・identification of areas for improvement, leading to progressively better HSE management.
Within JDC, a variety of different types of audits are conducted, with details given below:
・Head Office HSE Audits (Audits led by the SE Department in Head Office are conducted on each rig annually. A Senior Managing Director, or other executive typically participates as an audit team member.)
・Third Party HSE Audits (Third party audits are a useful tool to compare results with internal audits and other companies in the industry. This ensures that internal audits are to an acceptable standard, and that company standards are to an industry acceptable level.)
・Client HSE Audits (Frequently, a client will want to do an HSE audit before the start of a project. This audit may be in conjunction with a Head Office HSE Audit, or independent.)
The second part of this element is Review, or more specifically, Management Review. The importance of Management Review cannot be understated. For if management sets a policy, but fails to monitor that the policy is followed, or how it is implemented, the policy will likely fail, or be substantially modified by lower layers of management or the workforce.
The company's senior management should, at appropriate intervals, review the HSE MS and its performance, to ensure its continuing suitability and effectiveness. The review should specifically, but not exclusively, address:
・the possible need for changes to the policy and objectives, in the light of changing circumstances and the commitment to strive for continual improvement
・resource allocation for HSE MS implementation and maintenance
・sites and/or situations on the basis of evaluated hazards and risks, and emergency planning.
The review process should be documented, and its results recorded, to facilitate implementation of consequent changes. Reviews should be used to reinforce continuous efforts to improve HSE performance. Within JDC, management review is reflected in the following mechanisms:
・HSE Committee (Once a year there is a meeting of all the General Managers, and the Managers of various departments in Head Office, along with the Senior Managing Director responsible for Safety, in which HSE issues are reviewed and discussed.)
・HSE Conferences (The Senior Managing Director responsible for Safety attends the in-house HSE Conferences to hear first-hand from the line managers how the HSE-MS is being implemented, and if there are any problems .)
・Management Review of incidents, HSE performance and audits (All the incidents, audit reports and HSE statistics cross the desk of the Senior Managing Director responsible for Safety. Adequate information and feedback is provided to ensure that the policy is followed.)
3. DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED
When efforts were first made to implement this type of HSE-MS within JDC, difficulties were encountered. The two most prominent difficulties were the language barrier, and resistance to change.
As the author was the person with whom the responsibility of interpreting the E&P Forum's guidelines and other HSE-MS documentation and communicating it to JDC staff lay, this was a very real difficulty. Many of the concepts that form the basis of the E&P Forum guidelines are foreign to Japan and communicating these concepts and rationales effectively was not easy. Efforts were further hampered by the author's inability to communicate effectively in Japanese. Partial resolution to this difficulty has been made possible by translating key documents into Japanese, and through extensive face-to-face discussions. These discussions, in small groups, mostly occurring in operational conditions, are an effective method to communicate the HSE message. By going directly to the workers, rather than sending verbose dictates from Head Office, the workers feel that their voice is heard, and are much more willing participants in the system.
Another approach used, is to have members of the Safety and Environment Department (who speak Japanese) send out information or communicate with personnel in Japanese. The current arrangement is far from perfect, and there are different levels of understanding and acceptance of the HSE-MS within the company, which sad to admit is often based on the level of English understanding. Given the experiences of the past three years and the critical mass that the HSE-MS has obtained, the problem of language is decreasing.
Resistance to change was, and remains, a major obstacle. A common perception that many people held was that JDC was working just fine the way it was, and that there was nothing to be gained by making changes. Many people felt that the introduction of an HSE system would cause a great deal of disruption and damage. HSE was seen as something that would change how people worked, take too long and cost too much. Over time, and as people have seen the benefits of having a good HSE-MS, resistance has decreased. The most effective way to reduce resistance to change is to have the workforce involved in making the changes, and discuss with them why the changes are necessary and how the changes will benefit them.
4. BENEFITS OF THE SYSTEM
The primary benefit of the implementation of such a system is a reduction in the incident rate and corresponding loss, as shown in Figure 2, which compares the IADC average of lost time accidents for international offshore drilling operations, and JDC's performance. The sharp decline in JDC's incident figures for 1997 coincide with the introduction of the HSE-MS.
There are other intangible benefits, which are more difficult to quantify. The first is an improvement in morale. If management is seen to commit the resources to ensure the health and safety of the workforce, the workforce feel better about what they are doing, and are more willing to put in additional effort.
Another positive impact is an increase in JDC's competitive advantage. As a result of having a modern HSE-MS in place, business opportunities increase for JDC. If JDC did not have such a system, it would be very difficult to win contracts from many of the larger, international oil companies.
