(20a) Is Your Operation Prepared for Economic Recovery?

Proposed Title ” Is  Your Operation prepared for Economic Recovery?”

The world economy has been depressed for several years. During that time, changes have occurred; these include reductions in funding, headcount reduction, reduced production, equipment temporarily out of service, and reduced equipment integrity inspections to name a few. Some of these changes may have been reviewed, but many especially those involving human resources may not have been thoroughly analyzed or were only reviewed to reassign duties until a replacement can be named. Also, restarting mothballed equipment and a return to “full” production will make these gaps more obvious.

Gaps may be the availability of qualified workers, training resources for new employees as production returns to pre-recession level. If these gaps are not recognized, the economic upswing will challenge the existing resources & systems and potentially lead to unsafe or even catastrophic situations. Also, there may be shortages of raw materials if suppliers are not prepared to meet your production levels.

This paper serves to alert the CPI to the impending problems that may be encountered during the economic recovery, to encourage planning to address resource gaps, and to review existing PS systems to verify their ability to handle the influx of changes that will occur.

John W. Herber