This discussed permit-to-work (PTW) systems for enabling, or hindering, daily work.
Many interviews and site observations were undertaken.
Extracts:
· “The PTW follows the growing demand for modern control in organizations, which has spread through industries and has increased bureaucracy, as pointed out by Dekker”
· “This leads to “super-specified” bureaucratic processes, which are misdirected and generally large, which, in turn, may have lost connection with the actual work to be performed”
· PTW systems “if poorly executed … can create an environment known as paper-only system”
· “Another issue is the growing accountability of workers for their own safety [10], with increasing importance given to the PTW system and its volume related to blame attribution within the units”
· In this study, many workers were dissatisfied with the PTW, and “In general, PTW is related to bureaucratization, work overload, accountability of workers, and distancing from PTW’s main goal of promoting safety”
· Observations showed that >20 permits may be needed on some days – 1 every 36 mins
· Many of these must be closed on the day, in combination with 20 PTWs that an operator must open
· Per an operator, “There is no time left for the technical part, just putting out fires. There is a high demand for little workforce in the maintenance and operation services”
· E.g., they spend so much time opening and closing permits, that they have less time left for the actual task
· “A simple light bulb change can take up to 3 hours.”, when including permit processes
· On one observation, the permit issuer “The signing process was quick. The executors reviewed and signed the documents with little interaction during the process”
· Also the electronic system challenged effective and safe work, being that “it is an electronic linear checklist in which the technician fills in the required information. The little integration between documents (e.g., service order, previous service documents), disorganization in the document versions, and difficulty in updating workers’ records are some issues found in this filling procedure”
PTW system limits:
Some limits of the PTW system in this study were:
· “A) divergences in the perception of the activity risk”
· “B) high bureaucratic demand in the document preparation process”
· “C) dynamic work context contrasting with a document lacking flexibility”
· D) excessive simultaneous release of activities”
· “E) perception of document use for accountability of workers”
· They also found that the permit developer and the permit users had convergence of purposes”, which can increase the complexity of the document, or leading to “excessive bureaucracy”
· E.g. each stakeholder of the permit “decides to add a certain characteristic or content to the process or the PTW itself”
· The bureaucracy around operating the PTW system was believed to “consume valuable resources from workers and diminish the relevance of the system as a safety-oriented practice”
· Hence, a risk is “in the current format, PTW being a process paper-system only, impacting safety in industrial production units”
· Also, “using the document for accountability of workers shows a lack of trust within the organizational environment and creates an environment of mistrust around the PTW or its connection to this singular purpose, blame attribution”
· While the PTW process was acknowledged for its importance for safety, in the current format it “results in a high workload, which does not align with the benefits of PTW usage”
· And “effectiveness of the PTW is questioned when analyzing the decision-making in day-to-day work”
· The PTW process “reveals a delicate balance between the quality and quantity of operational routines”
Ref: Pereira, V. F. S., Farah, L. C., Martins, M., Arcuri, R., & Resende, A. (2024, August). The Contribution of Permits-To-Work for Safety. In Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (pp. 354-359). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.
Study link: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-95-0211-0_55
Safe As LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14717868/
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