Making Zero a Reality: Selecting & Measuring the “Right” Zero

Since the inception of the Process Industries (PI), leaders of these organizations have accepted some level of fires, explosions, releases to the environment and other events as the cost of doing business and inevitable. This cultural mindset continues to this day and is partially why, in spite of the many advances in process, occupational, and environmental safety made in the PI, it is still experiencing major accidents, fires & environmental releases.

Real safety performance and behaviors cannot be managed, much less produced, by corporate safety programs, many of which can be viewed as “bumper sticker” or “fake” safety, while active and latent hazards go unnoticed and/or unaddressed. The false sense of security that many PI safety programs encourage is evidenced by the continued occurrences of large-scale catastrophes. The dichotomy of having a “safety culture” versus such events is clearly evident, yet the PI continues to focus on and measure the same indices – all of which have little bearing on the cause of these events. Zero can be a goal, but it needs to be a realistic zero - a goal where no humans ever make an error is completely unrealistic. For many organizations the mistake isn’t establishing Zero as a goal, the mistake is selecting the wrong Zero and then compounding the problem by failing to support the organization in order to make Zero a reality.

This paper examines the organizational policies and safety metrics of the PI with that of the single most reliable and safe organization in the world, which has achieved a safety record of ZERO incidents for its entire 65+ year history.