Absolute Safety Case Study
Developing Safety Leadership With Shell
How does Shell lead safety efficiently in the Gulf of Mexico?
key actions:
New System Integration
Process Assessment
Procedure Overhaul
Key Results:
Over 300,000 Man Hours Saved
Less Risk
Better Morale
Out in the Gulf Mexico, dozens of miles from shore on 40 story high platforms, Shell is pumping out millions of tons of oil every year. Shell is one of the biggest oil producers in the Gulf of Mexico, employing over 1,000 workers across dozens of platforms, resulting in billions of dollars a year in revenue. Last year, thousands of permits were submitted, thousands of forms were filed, and hundreds of thousands of work hours were reviewed.
That’s a lot of moving parts.
With multi-million dollar assets hosting hundreds of people’s lives, safety is always serious, and Shell takes safety seriously. But we didn’t come to Shell to convince them of how important safety is. We came to help them perform better, and get the job done faster while improving the culture and tightening up their processes.
Problem:
With their decades of industry leadership, Shell has learned that safety is not always easy. With each new job, new permits need to be filed. Sometimes this means hundreds of permits a week on a single platform. And with Shell’s strict Permit to Work planning process, sometimes workers were filing permits they didn’t even need. That’s a lot of work hours spent on filing. Shell realized they were wasting time and resources with an unorganized and outdated system.
Shell was filing hundreds of permits a week by hand and on paper. Realizing what a huge burden this was to efficiency, Shell found a new software to make their processes electronic.
With the knowledge and expertise Absolute Safety had proven to Shell over the years, they trusted us to spearhead this new effort. As with most projects, the key to success is using good people.
Absolute helped implement the new system, integrate with existing processes, and execute a seamless transition, all while finding new ways to improve. Even with modern technology, moving, improving, and coordinating thousands of permits and processes is no simple task.
Solution:
By analyzing and organizing thousands of different types of permits, we were able to iron out exactly which permits needed to be filed for which types of jobs. We realized that people were submitting permits for nearly every job they did, when only about 60% of those jobs actually needed permits!
We realized that many workers were simply scared to work and risk losing their job over not having the right paperwork. While it’s great that employees are caring about safety so much, no one wants to do unnecessary paperwork, or have to worry about losing their job from not knowing what paperwork they need to fill out. After we assessed and corrected the old processes, no one had to wonder if they were doing the right paperwork. We were able to make the new permit system much more clear, and get people to work faster.
Extra permits weren’t the only issue with the old system. The old paper forms weren’t always as accurate or as detailed as they should have been, and paper permits simply take a long time to get done. Transferring to an electronic system saved thousands of hours of submission time alone. In fact, the new system saved time throughout the entire Permit to Work process, from reviewing and editing, to filing and approving permits.
With Absolute’s oversight and improvements to accuracy and detail, Shell saved even more time from reduced errors and re-dos. Absolute coached workers into the new system, to ease the transition for workers and help anyone who struggled with new technology or processes, while also training them on how to properly execute the current safety standards that Shell already had in place.
With Absolute’s help, Shell saved over 300,000 man-hours in just a year. With more confidence in their system, employees were able to stop submitting so many extra permits. With a quicker and better process, the attitude towards safety shifted away from a feeling of burden or uncertainty. Employees were more comfortable, behaving more safely, and getting back to work more quickly. With this new system and our help improving the processes, Shell got set up to safely save millions of dollars every year for decades to come.
Problem Pt.2
There’s a lot more to good safety than efficient paperwork. In fact, sometimes paperwork can take you away from seeing how you could be more safe. While Shell is a leader in safety within their industry, they recognize that they can always be better. When you need operations to be running smoothly 24/7, precise planning and oversight is critical. With so many moving parts in an operation, it's difficult to know everything that’s going on. We filled in the gaps.
Shell brought in Absolute Safety’s HSE professionals to get a diligent set of eyes on their work. While Shell’s internal safety techs were handling administrative efforts, Absolute’s safety techs were able to get out into the field and see what was really going on. During an internal audit, we got the chance to report our findings and explain how workers could be safer. While Shell already had a strong safety record and culture, we found some ways to help them improve even further.
Solution Pt. 2
We found that some processes were not being documented as well as others. Some safety talks were being glossed over. Some processes simply weren’t as safe or efficient as they could be, and some processes even put Shell at risk for fines from BSSE. All of this information came from Absolute’s Safety techs, and when Shell realized that Absolute’s techs had such a good understanding of the situation in the field, we ended up taking over the entire audit.
Our techs asked the tough questions and found the tough answers. We looked for every possible way to make the processes on each platform as safe and efficient as possible. A large part of that was physically visting each site and watching how people worked.
Sometimes, direct observation is the clearest path to the true story. When Shell recognized that we were getting the real truth, they listened closely to our recommendations. Leadership immediately responded to our report, taking action on specifics and improving the overall culture.
When leadership takes action, employees do too. When everyone is on the same page, the entire working ecosystem is more fluid. When leadership engage their employees in a united vision of safety, people are more comfortable working, and when that vision is reinforced with consistent processes, safety procedures become efficient like clockwork. When leadership aligns their processes with their workers and their safety partner, people come home the way they left.
Conclusion
We want to thank Shell for their dedication to keeping their employees safe, and we are certain their workers are thankful as well. Many companies would brush off our findings. Many businesses wouldn’t even entertain an internal safety audit in the first place. Some businesses simply don’t take safety seriously. We’ve found that the ones that do, like Shell, are the ones that stay around for decades.
Contact:
Feel free to reach out to info@absolutesafety.com to learn more about how Absolute Safety drive profits with safety practices.