An integrated process-based HSE management system: Case Study summary

 This is a rephrased summary of "An integrated process-based HSE management system: A case study" written by Vahid Hajipour, Hamidreza Amouzegar, Ali Gharaei, Mohammad Saeed Gholami Abarghoeia, Sepideh Ghajaria. 

Case Study

Summary of software development

In the referred article, the authors proposed a centralized data management system to facilitate a better integration of health, safety and environment (HSE) policies into organizational practices. This solution is suggested to address the lack of efficient HSE implementation due to the existence of challenges in the integration process itself. The common denominator across organizations that leads to this problem is the conventional use of data management practiced by departments that are inherently disconnected from each other. The flawed practice of data management due to disconnected systems causes the difficulty to perform collaborative efforts (in this case the incorporation of HSE into organizational practices). However, coordinating data from different areas of an organization also pose several challenges as it requires the ability to completely understand the relationship between different parts of an organization as well as aspects such as interdependency and complexity of data transmission. 

The International Labor Organization (ILO) reported that 2.3 million people die each year from work-related injuries. This problem not only affects families involved but also cost employers huge lost in terms of compensation payments, halted productions, recruitment costs (training, loss of high skilled employees), loss of reputation, and many other miscellaneous losses. The number of fatal accidents reported are undeniably high and should be taken as a huge concern that needs to be alleviated. To help achieve this, the authors stresses on the need to plan organized process from the viewpoint of HSE.

From the safety viewpoint, it is imperative to identify occupational hazards and reduce the possibility of accidents and injuries. Providing an environment that minimizes exposure to dangerous conditions and substances is also important. Organizations attain this by taking the initiative to provide staff training that emphasize on preventing unwanted incidents, preparation and response training, as well as lessons on the use of protective equipment. From the health perspective, reducing risks that may happen to employees and operators can be done through the establishment of safe, high-quality and environmentally friendly processes which involves practices that are systematic. From the environment perspective, organizational processes should involve a methodical approach to comply to environmental requirements. This can be achieved by means such as the practice of waste management and correct procedures to remove and reduce dangerous pollutants.

Usually when organizations expand, management systems will add new software(s) to deal with additional work load as well as serve new purposes that comes along with expansion. In order to move towards a more centralized data management system, organizations should plan ahead on how they can integrate these additional software(s) with their established system and identify the process that will be needed to transfer data in between different modules when the situation calls for it. To better define what integration means, the paper quotes “Integration is examined in terms of technical, process, and strategic perspectives, including data exchange between systems, standardization of business processes, as well as collaboration and coordination between human resources.”

Experts in HSE subjects share a common view on the incapability of current commercial software in tackling HSE subjects. Identified challenges to integrate HSE with current enterprise resource planning (ERP) includes high cost and high level of difficulty. The main factor that leads to this is due to the constant need for observation, assessment and analysis as HSE processes are dynamic in nature. A HSE system that can benefit from a centralized data management can help provide a proactive approach to organizations (towards zero accident) instead of preventive (minimizes but not completely eliminate risks of accidents) or reactive (measures are only taken if accidents happen).

Case study

A company by the name of Middle East Mines Industries Development Holding Company (MIDHCO) is used as the subject of this case study. The main activities performed by this company includes investment, exploration, extraction and production of steel products in Asia. The company introduced MIDRP, an integrated system created to improve the efficiency of resource management and establish better communication between its members and subsidiaries. The name is derived from combining MIDHCO and enterprise resource planning (ERP). The system is developed by FANAP ICT Subsidiary of Pasargad Financial Group (FANAP) and went through four stages: analysis, design, development, and deployment. Business process management software (BPMS) is used as the base for the design stage of the ERP system. This MIDRP system enables a more centralized data management by integrating data and operations. It also bridges processes concerning the organization’s suppliers and customers. Operations performed within the organisation are process-oriented instead of task-oriented. This choice allows for better organisational flexibility and efficiency. The outputs of this software are used to enable better decision-making for better actions.

The five core processes of the organization include:

• ·         Supply chain management
• ·         Manufacturing
• ·         Commercial management
• ·         Maintenance management
• ·         Quality management

Eight supportive processes are as follows:

• ·         Financial management
• ·         Legal management
• ·         Human capital management
• ·         Performance management
• ·         Health, safety, environment
• ·         Business platform capabilities
• ·         Project management

As-Is and To-Be analysis

In the process of developing the HSE aspect of MIDRP, it has been agreed between MIDHCO and FANAP to include ten processes:

• ·         HSE inspection management (HSEIM)
• ·         Incident and safety management (ISM)
• ·         Near-miss management (NMM)
• ·         HSE risk management (HSERM)
• ·         HSE work permit (HSEWP)
• ·         HSE work order (HSEWO)
• ·         Employee health management (EHM)
• ·         Pre-employment medical tests (PMT)
• ·         Crisis management (CM)
• ·         Waste management (WM)

After establishing these processes as the HSE scope that will be incorporated into MIDRP, the production stage is commenced. First, the current HSE system is analyzed by mapping HSE related processes and relationships in MIDHCO and its subsidiaries. By performing complete analysis on these matters, experts will be able to point out weak spots or area of improvements possessed by currently deployed HSE system. These findings are used to build a model called As-Is (current processes that organizations are required to deploy to tackle HSE matters). Next, with reference to As-Is model, the design of To-Be model (optimized version that will be used to replace As-Is model, providing a more efficient approach to solving HSE matters) is initiated. This To-Be model describes the HSE system that will eventually be deployed. All steps and tools needed to fix or improve identified inputs from As-Is model are stated during this stage. Future work processes are also developed by reengineering business processes. Both As-Is and To-Be models are developed using flowcharts and Business Process Modelling and Notation (BPMN). Root cause analysis is performed using the fishbone diagram to detect area of improvements.

After analysing current HSE system, it has been identified that only two factories have used the pre-crisis part of MIDCHO current HSE system. Current prevention management is performed by developing an emergency response plan after assessing risks and identifying high risk areas. This emergency response plan is developed by a formed committee. For each identified risk, manoeuvring plans and scenarios are developed for HSE and other units. After evaluating the scenarios, the committee outlines identified weakness that needs to be improved on for the next manoeuvre. The necessary programs and tools are then provided to prepare for crisis. 

Based on gap analysis, the improved crisis management introduced will include new features such as clarifying manoeuvre scenario, types of manoeuvre, scheduling, proposing corrective and preventive actions, evaluating criteria, suggesting critical conditions guide, relaying noticed risk to HSERM process, crisis notifications and so on.

Applied business processes

Three main aspects that forms the HSM acronym namely safety, health and environment are represented into domains. The processes are connected to these domains as follows:

Domain	Process
Safety	·         Work order ·         Risk management ·         Inspection management ·         Incident and safety management
Health	·         Near-miss management ·         Work permit ·         Pre-employment medical tests ·         Employee health management
Environment	·         Waste management

 

Business rules and validation

Several rules are outlined for each process to ensure full communication transparency and to make sure each process is executed properly. Example below lists down the business rules for the ISM process:

·         Reports on incident as well as related documents must be recorded.

·         Authorities related to incidents must be made aware after incident is recorded.

·         Incident evaluation committees must find out the main factors behind the occurrence of the incident.

·         Upon preparing the incident report, recent risks must be identified. If the risks are already in the organization records, the related risk profile needs to be renewed.

·         Failure notices must be sent to maintenance unit in case of equipment failure.

·         Ensure that incident statistics defined for specific time frames can be observed for monitoring purposes.

·         Ensure that real-time observation of the number of days and hours is possible regardless of incident occurrence.

·         Ensure the possibility of registering claims due to work after recording an incident report.

Validation examples are as follows:

• ·         Under ISM, if the type incident is identified to be a human incident, minimum of one person’s information must be registered as an injured person.
• ·         Under ISM, disruption time must be recorded in case of production halting incidents.
• ·         Under HSWEP, record legal obligations and hazards whenever the need for work permit publishing arises
• ·         Under HSERM, only risks with unique hazard, hazard location and related service are allowed to be submitted as risks.
• ·         Under HSERM, job safety analysis (JSA) risk assessment method should only be performed to risks that have at least one job at risk.
• ·         Under HSEIM, inspection plan submission must have a minimum of one defined inspection date.
• ·         Under HSEIM, inspection plan submission must have a minimum of one required resource and one HSE checklist.

System developing and prototyping

During this stage, proposed requirements are heavily referred to in the process of developing the HSE product. This is the phase where the new HSE system processes as well as its configuration of modules are finalized. To add clarification, prototyping is used to describe the process of obtaining experience to deploy a system via empirical methods. In other words, this stage involves fabricating a trial version of a system that is meant for evaluating the performance of planned system features in a real setting. Aspects such as identifying necessary amendments for better product to requirement integration as well as testing new user interface and data transforming software are tested in this phase. Thus, the output of this system will be an already tested HSE system that is ready to be used.

The data model

A defined data model will influence the logical structure implemented in the database, thus significantly controls the way data is stored, organized and applied. A data model also displays the dynamic between data elements. Data Modelling is a term coined to describe the process of documenting and creating complicated complex software system before transforming it into a much easier to comprehend diagram. Due to time consumption problems that may arise in order to display every possible data relationship, data models are usually constructed in the forms of concept, logical or physical. Data models enable information systems beneficiaries to detect errors quicker and perform amendments before coding begins. More than one data models are often used by data modelling professionals to make sure correct identification of processes, entities, and relationships between data.

System validation

The proposed solution has already been applied by one of the biggest steel-making and mining companied in the Middle East. In this case specifically, MIDRP has been used in the level of MIDHCO as well as its subsidiaries. Post implementation analysis reveals that performance indicators of the system have improved after MIDRP deployment. 

All developed process went through a variety of tests to legitimize the suggested system. The tests are done on test servers and integration server before transmitted to the main server to deliver the final output. Failures related to software bugs are relayed to the development team to be fixed. The fluidity of communication between integration servers and other product groups is also tested. After all tests have been performed, the final product is transmitted to the main server.

Business intelligence dashboard

The practice of visualizing important data in one view using business intelligence dashboards enables easier decision-making processes. These boards also provide transparency on the currently used system, thus greatly assisting managers to suggest improvements. A HSE product dashboard consists of request forms to multiple units, a cartable that allows requests and incoming mail review, visual tools to monitor HSE performance, key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate important measures and lay issue management reports. Figures given above is a good example of the interface of a business intelligence dashboard.

Deployment challenges

Applying ERP systems pose a variety of obstacles and uncertainties due to myriads of related processes and relationships in between them. It is critical to make sure that the fabrication of HSE method during design phase is compatible with the dimensions, processes and tasks of the industry. To account for all of this demands tremendous amount of time and effort. The most challenging requirement would be the integration of HSE system into an ERP system. Thorough understanding of ERP elements, processes and their requirements for efficient communication in between processes is a must. During deployment stage, every process must go through trial and error process and returned to design stage for evaluation. This becomes an even bigger challenge if some applications are supplied by different vendors.

There is also the need to cultivate a new way of doing things into an already established work culture. Adopting new systems will require great collaborative cooperation from employees to facilitate the transition. Variables such as managers’ trust, cooperation from employees, IT team capability are important pieces in ensuring the effectiveness of the new system.

Managerial implications

HSE system provides access to managers to data and corresponding analysis via intelligent dashboards. This greatly helps with making decisions that will affect the future of the organization. By embedding KPIs into HSE systems, manager can use the new system to identify areas of improvement related to HSE such as unsafe actions, unsafe conditions and so on. This new capability offered by the new system will reduce incident related costs within the organization.

Conclusion

This case study has provided an example of the significance of an integrated systems and processes of an organization, especially in the context of integrating HSE into an ERP solution.