Development of a Process Incident Metric at Bayer Corporation

摘要

In January 2000, Bayer Corporation (Bayer) senior management recognized a need to enhance the measurement of Bayer's process safety program effectiveness. Although Bayer tracked the number and status of recommendations resulting from process safety audits and process hazard analyses, the number of people provided process safety-related training, a variety of "reported" incidents, and similar data, these measures either did not reflect actual "end performance" (i.e., the number of process safety-related incidents and the effects of those incidents) or did not measure it effectively or consistently. The emphasis and application of process safety throughout Bayer had been improving and expanding but the effectiveness of these efforts in terms of actual end performance was not fully known. Consequently, Bayer initiated a formal program and development team to address the above issues. Although proactive measures or "leading indicators" ultimately were desired, Bayer recognized that "we must know where we've been before we can get to where we're going." Moreover, "real world" impact of incidents could be used to increase awareness and help drive change across the organization where performance was less than desired. Therefore, the initial effort focused on effectively measuring the end results. Once this was effectively addressed, the initiative's focus would transition to more proactive measures.