“Egyptian authorities suggest that the Ever Given container ship that ran aground blocking the Suez Canal could have been due to human error.” Such headlines attributing serious accidents to “human error” are remarkably common following nearly every serious incident. But … Read More
Author Archives: Jim Loud
Beyond Compliance: Using Performance-Based Assessments to Drive Continuous Improvement
For almost 20 years of my career, I led assessment teams and assessment organizations for both commercial nuclear and defense nuclear facilities. Along the way I learned to value the power of work observations in assessing safety performance, as well … Read More
The Importance of Periodic Performance-Based Assessments (PBA)
Are We Safe Yet? How Do You Know? How do you know your company is safe? You should already have some clues beyond your OSHA injury rates and other lagging indicators. A lack of recent (reported) injuries is a demonstrably … Read More
Are Your Safety Inspections a Waste of Time?
Do your safety inspections keep finding the same deficiencies over and over again? Do “unsafe conditions” rather than systems or process safety issues dominate your findings? Are your safety inspection issues assigned to the safety staff rather than the actual … Read More
Our Stubborn Problem with Serious Incidents and Fatalities (SIFs) – Part II
Risk exists in an interactive system, much of which is beyond the workers’ influence. Risk and reliable performance are, therefore, systems issues, not personal issues. Bringing risk to an acceptable level begins with analyzing the work, not just the personal … Read More
Our Stubborn Problem with Serious Incidents and Fatalities – Part I
In 2011, Terry Norris, then president of the American Society of Safety Professionals, commented on the failure of American companies to reduce the rate of serious incidents and fatalities (SIFs). “A statistical plateau of worker fatalities is not an achievement, … Read More
