Samuel E. Burns
Jacobs Engineering Group
Jennifer L. Brown
Environmental & Infrastructure
Technologies, Inc.
ABSTRACT
Tightening budgets in the DOE complex are requiring contractors to accomplish more productive work at less cost, in every functional area. The health and safety function in environmental restoration work is not immune to this pressure: contractor health and safety groups need to work smarter, faster, and cheaper than they have in the past, showing good cost-effectiveness for their efforts. One way to succeed in this is by applying the "necessary and sufficient" or "work smart" process to the health and safety functions. This can have the benefit of focusing health and safety efforts clearly on those areas of concern to a particular program or project, thereby maximizing the use of personnel, materials, and funds. However, proper use of this process requires careful analysis and sound technical judgement to avoid errors in identifying the applicable health and safety concerns and regulations for a particular project or effort. The best results can be seen in an integrated team approach, where health and safety staff interact with the other functional groups on each project from initial planning to completion. The Jacobs Environmental Management Team in Oak Ridge uses just such an approach in its work. Experience over the past two years has developed a "lesson learned" list of things to do and things to avoid to achieve a successful integrated approach to "work smarter" in health and safety.
INTRODUCTION
A primary concern in the modern government contractor arena today is to perform the work in an effective and safe manner while controlling costs. This is particularly of concern in the environmental restoration, waste management, and decontamination and decommissioning projects at major federal installations. Budgets are getting tighter, but the work still must be completed in a timely fashion, and the health and safety of the workers on the projects must be protected. The goals of controlling costs, accomplishing work on schedule, and protecting the workforce are interrelated, and must be considered together rather than separately if a project is to be successful.
From the health and safety perspective, getting cost, schedule, and work safety interconnected on every project should be a fundamental goal. All health and safety professionals realize that fewer worker injuries and illnesses equal more effective time worked on the project; greater effective use of time equals less cost in the long run. However, some very specific considerations are required to achieve this link. These include:
While some, if not all, of these points may seem to be somewhat obvious at first glance, a closer look at them serves to provide important perspective on their full impact on working better, faster, cheaper, and above all, safely.
EARLY INVOLVEMENT: START PLANNING FROM THE START
It may seem obvious at first to say that involving any technical group early on in the planning of a project provides better input, better planning, and better project performance. However, "involvement" doesn't mean simply notifying a group of the impending project and letting them have their turn at reviewing and commenting on it. Effective early-involvement work planning requires that every discipline involved in the project be a part of an integrated, interdisciplinary team that handles the planning and execution of the project from start to finish. The appropriate health and safety disciplines, such as health physics, industrial hygiene, and safety, must be a part of the team. This assures that health and safety considerations are included in the planning up front, as well as allowing both the health and safety and other personnel involved in the project a more complete understanding of the work process and goals of the project. This leads to a quicker, more concise planning phase, and much smoother, more effective implementation and execution of the work.
RISK-BASED PLANNING
The best, most effective way of planning health and safety into a project is to base the level of health and safety concern on the actual level of seriousness of the hazards and consequences of the work to be done. The base-level goal should be control of hazards, not to run down a checklist of rules and regulations that might or might not be fully applicable. A realistic, accurate analysis of the hazards associated with the work, and incorporation of effective controls for these hazards, is essential to a safe, cost-effective project. This involves the following five specific steps being accomplished:
A rigorous approach to these five points assures that attention is focused on the health and safety issues that are of importance to the project work. There is no effort wasted on non-applicable or unrelated issues, rules, or regulations. The project runs effectively; time and money are saved; and the workforce is protected. The real application of resources is matched to the actual level of risk involved, improving the ability to assure that these risks are mitigated.
SKILL AND KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED
A potential "down-side" to the integrated planning and rigorous approach to identifying the work and associated health and safety concerns noted above is that a highly skilled and knowledgeable team is required if the planning and assessmentis to be successful. The design professionals must understand the health and safety implications and the practical requirements for accomplishing the work they specify. Personnel on the operational or "field work" side must understand the goal of the project and the health and safety issues. The health and safety personnel must understand both the rationale behind the work package specifications, and the realities of performing the required work. In short, every member of the project team must know not only their primary area of expertise, but must have a good working knowledge of the other involved specialities as well. Otherwise, it is all too easy to either fail to effectively identify health and safety issues that can affect the performance of the project, or to place so many unnecessary health and safety restrictions on a project that the work cannot be done in an effective and timely manner.
That being stated, it is equally important to realize that skill and knowledge alone are not sufficient: effective communication and teamwork are even more important. For the planning and work team to be truly integrated, ideas and information from all members must be "put on the table" for consideration and discussion. Each team member has to be able to both convey and receive information to the other team members, so that all concerns and issues are discussed and adequately addressed. Finally, the team must work together toward the goal if it is to truly be an effective, integrated team. Training personnel from many disparate technical backgrounds to work together in a coordinated fashion may be one of the most difficult problems in forming an integrated project planning and execution system, but it is also one of the most essential. The importance of the total quality concept of "breaking down barriers" cannot be overstated: every technical discipline must be able and willing to comment constructively on every aspect of the work. This is possible only is they are knowledgeable of the areas beyond their particular technical specialty, and are able to communicate ideas and concerns effectively.
MANAGEMENT OWNERSHIP AND INVOLVEMENT
In the end, line management is responsible for seeing that work is performed correctly, in a cost-effective manner, and safely. Support from all levels of management is therefore a requirement for an effective integration of project planning, implementation, and health and safety. Once managers realize that safety, effective work, and cost savings are related, they realize that they have available a tool that will clearly improve the performance of their projects in an integrated approach to planning and implementing project work. Management involvement and support for this approach is in turn communicated to the personnel planning and performing the project, and results in an increased level of sensitivity to the relatedness and importance of cost, schedule, and safety at all levels. This is essential, because, as the saying goes, "safety is everyone's business," as are doing the work on time and within budget. Management ownership and involvement in this concept will result in ownership and involvement by the project staff in general, resulting in a much more efficient project.
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (DOE) INITIATIVES
Many of the concepts mentioned above are specifically supported by initiatives currently being put forth by the Department of Energy (DOE) to improve the cost effectiveness and safety of operations at its facilities. DOE has used the concept of "necessary and sufficient" or "work smart standards" in certain applications for some time, in reference to identifying and implementing only those standards and regulations pertinent to a given operation or project as a cost-effectiveness measure. The DOE implementation plan for Integrated Safety Management contains the five steps in risk-based planning mentioned earlier: define scope; identify and analyze hazards; develop and implement controls; work within scope and controls; and provide feedback for continuous improvement. The Enhanced Work Planning Initiative that began testing at three DOE facilities early in 1995 is based on integrated work planning teams and the integration of health and safety concepts at all levels of work planning and execution. It is clear that DOE recognizes and supports initiatives aimed at integrating schedule, cost, and health and safety, and realizes the value of these efforts.
AN EXAMPLE OF AN EFFECTIVE INTEGRATED PLANNING SYSTEM
The Jacobs Environmental Management (EM) Team, while not a part of the DOE Enhanced Work Planning Initiative test, uses many of the same concepts in it operations. The Jacobs EM Team, operating in Oak Ridge, TN, is led by Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc., and is composed of Jacobs and its teaming partners, or subcontractors. The Team provides technical support to the DOE Oak Ridge Operations Environmental Restoration Division, and performs a variety of projects related to environmental restoration activities.
The Jacobs EM Team is set up as a matrix organization: technical department managers oversee specialty areas of expertise and assign appropriate personnel to specific projects; and task order managers oversee specific projects or activities requested by the client. Project teams are drawn from technical departments, and include personnel having the specific areas or expertise required by the project. Task order managers are likewise assigned on the basis of having the best skills and experience mix for the type of project. The core team members generally remain assigned to the project for its duration.
There is a strict methodology used by the Jacobs EM Team to plan and execute projects. This serves to assure that a consistent approach is taken to every project, that the planning put into the project is appropriate to the level of difficulty, and that input is obtained both early in start-up and throughout execution of the project from all appropriate technical disciplines. The methodology covers project initiation, execution, and completion, with specific steps or sub-phases in each.
Project initiation occurs formally when the client requests a specific project. The first specific step in the project management methodology is the conduct of a project strategy meeting. This meeting is composed of the senior members of all EM Team technical disciplines, including Health and Safety, and serves to determine the types of expertise that will or will not be required for the project. Once this is accomplished, a preliminary cost plan will be developed, and a task manager is formally assigned. A meeting is then held with the client to review the cost plan and assigned technical expertise areas, as well as the scope of work, to assure that EM Team and client expectations are in agreement. This completes the initial, general phase of the project planning.
The next step in the initiation phase is the formal assignment of personnel to the project team, and the scheduling of an initial project team meeting. The personnel assigned will plan the actual execution of the project; many of them will also actually perform the project work. Health and safety personnel with skills appropriate to the needs of the specific project are always a part of the project team from the beginning. These health and safety personnel are generally the senior representatives of the appropriate technical disciplines, such as construction safety, industrial hygiene, and health physics. A project execution plan, developed jointly by the task manager and the lead technical experts on the project team, is the formal documentation of the project's activity schedule, budget, and technical requirements, matched to the scope of work agreed to by the client. The execution plan is also used to define the plans and procedures required to perform the project. Some of these subsidiary plans and procedures will be standard ones already in use by the EM Team, while others must be generated specifically for the project. In either case, they are prepared by personnel of the appropriate technical disciplines, and undergo rigorous review by the project team prior to use to assure that they meet the needs and restrictions already identified for the project.
After the project plans and procedures are defined, the execution phase begins: the project execution plan and all subsidiary plans, schedules, and procedures are implemented, and work is begun. Periodic progress reports are prepared, tracking the work accomplished, upcoming short-range targets, and any issues and concerns. This allows senior management to assist in resolving any potential problems at the earliest possible opportunity. Audits and surveillances, especially those conducted by health and safety and quality assurance, are also used to monitor and document project performance. Any modifications to the project scope or execution requirements that may arise due to unanticipated or changing conditions are reviewed by the project team and by senior management, health and safety, and quality assurance, and implemented as necessary. Health and safety or quality concerns always override other issues such as cost and schedule; the health and safety of the workers and the public and the quality of the work must not be compromised. It is the policy of the Jacobs EM Team that the best way to provide timely, cost-effective work is through high quality and excellent safety performance: do the work right the first time, and do it in a safe manner, and you will meet or even exceed both your schedule and your budget goals. All members of the project team, whatever their discipline, understand and support this stance. While every effort is made to avoid unnecessary additional costs or performance delays, it is simply unacceptable to perform poor quality work or to work in such a manner as to endanger the workers, equipment, or the public. Any critical technical specialties, and health and safety in particular, are available to provide day-to-day operations support if necessary throughout the life of the project, to assure that the project is accomplished with the best possible levels of quality and safety.
When project activities are completed, a close-out phase is conducted. This is used to make any final documentation or reports necessary, to archive all project information, and to hold an end-of-project debriefing with the client. Its true importance to the overall conduct of the EM Team work; however, is that a final critique of the project planning and execution is performed at this time, and any "lessons learned" issues or actions are formally documented and passed on to all appropriate groups, as a part of the process of continuous improvement. Quality assurance and health and safety issues are particularly a focus at this stage, but no aspect of the project is excluded from the critique.
The system described above has proven extremely effective in practice over the past three years of operations in Oak Ridge. It has in several cases provided early identification of potential health and safety problems or concerns during planning phases of projects, rather than leaving these issues to be discovered during actual execution. In some cases, these issues would have had a major impact on the project, as the following examples show.
During the planning for a maintenance action involving the sampling of standing water from shield well pipes that formerly held experimental radioisotope sources and the subsequent pumping of the water and sealing of the pipes to prevent further water infiltration, an initial plan was proposed to use oxygen-fuel gas welding to weld the existing well pipe cover plates in place as seals. Early review by health physics specialists determined that the pipes and covers were very likely to have been contaminated by the radioisotope from leaky sources formerly in the wells, and welding would very probably result in generation of airborne radioactive material and potential personnel inhalation exposures. The project designers had not anticipated this, and realized that a considerable cost increase and schedule delay would arise if the extensive radiological controls needed to mitigate this hazard were used. Working with the health and safety personnel, the engineering team devised another method for sealing the well pipes that was effective, but that eliminated all potential for airborne radioactive particles being generated.
On an investigatory groundwater well installation project, air rotary drilling was necessary to penetrate underlying geological strata to sufficient depth to install monitoring wells in the desired groundwater flow zone. Air rotary drilling tends to generate dust, but in this case there was a potential that the shallower subsurface soils contained a variety of contaminants, including radionuclides, dioxins and furans, lead, and mercury, and these would be in any dust generated. There was no other viable option to air rotary drilling for installation of the wells, so control of the potential generation of dust from the drilling was essential. Health and safety personnel worked in close concert with project geologists to develop an operational methodology for the drilling that injected enough water into the process to practically eliminate dust generation, while still allowing the geologists to determine when the drill had reached a water-bearing stratum. The methods used were so effective that respiratory protection was required for the work crew for only thirty minutes out of over one hundred fifty hours of drilling operations. Close cooperation among the geologists, the drilling team, and health and safety personnel throughout the performance of the project served to assure that both worker protection and cost and schedule constraints were not in conflict, and the work was successfully accomplished.
LESSONS LEARNED
Application of the project planning and execution approach as described to actual projects of various types has resulted in a number of "lessons learned" to remember when applying an integrated planning approach. Some of these may seem obvious or "common sense", but still deserve mention because, based on actual experience, they are critical to getting an integrated planning system to be successful.
Point 1: DO get everyone with a stake in the project, especially health and safety, involvedas early as possible.
The point is a reiteration of the first point noted earlier as required to achieve linkage of safety, schedule, and cost. It is a critical factor in effective, efficient planning: delayed input results in important criteria being left out of the planning and mid-phase changes and delays. Early input equals early problem-solving.
Point 2: DON'T use a "checklist" approach to necessary requirements, or arbitrarily apply every potential requirement whether it's applicable or not.
Point 2A: DO base the level of health and safety planning and controls on a realistic evaluation of actual risks involved.
These two points are the "do" and "don't" of basing planning efforts on risks, not rules and regulations, since the goal is to protect the workers. It is both ineffective and inefficient to do otherwise.
Point 3: DO make sure to assign people to the planning and work team who have the right skills and experience to understand and handle the project.
Point 4: DO rigorously follow the "Five Critical Safety Steps" addressed in Risk Based Planning section.
Point 4A: DO accurately and completely define the scope of work and document it.
Point 4B: DO identify and analyze any hazards that are associated with the defined work.
Point 4C: DO develop and implement effective controls for the hazards identified.
Point 4D: DO perform the project work only within the scope, and only with the controls in place.
Point 4E: DO provide feedback and suggestions that will make it possible to improve work performance.
Point 5: DO get all levels of management involved in and actively supportive of, integrated planning and execution of projects.
"Management" here must mean everyone from the supervisor on each job through the senior program or facility manager. Anything less and the process will likely fail.
Point 6: DON'T "wing it"; DO have a strictly defined process to follow in planning and executing projects and follow it.
A well-defined, rigorous process is necessary for consistent quality in planning and execution. It is also much easier to teach an integrated planning and execution process if it's well-defined and documented.
Point 7: DON'T be afraid to make changes to the process, if experience shows that a change will be an improvement (but always remember to document it).
Make the process fit your company style and business culture, and fit the way your people work. If the original method isn't quite right, go on to revision 1..., and 2, and 3, etc., until it is right for what you need.
CONCLUSIONS
The system described above has been in use for over three years at the Jacobs EM Team, on projects with a wide range of types of activity, sizes of budgets, and levels of difficulty. This method has resulted in positive results in accomplishing projects on time or ahead of schedule, under budget, and safely. Especially in terms of safety, the results are excellent: with over one hundred task order projects having been planned and executed (some are complete, some ongoing) and over one million person-hours worked, the Jacobs EM Team has had no lost-time or OSHA-recordable accidents associated with its environmental restoration field activities. This clearly demonstrates that an integrated approach to project planning and execution, with management and employee commitment and support, does make it possible to do work faster, cheaper, better, and above all, more safely.