Posted byThe Houston Chronicle reports that a six month internal BP review conducted by the new CEO has found “organizational complexity” as the cause of their operational and safety problems.
Read the article at:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/5207860.html
and see if you agree.
Category: Accidents, Current Events, Investigations, Performance Improvement, Root Causes
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Here’s a link to the BP web site press release about this topic…
http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7037438
Comment by Mark — October 14, 2007 @ 9:12 am
The CEO is quoted, “Our problem is not about the strategy itself but about our execution of it. BP’s performance has materially lagged our peer group in the last three years. It has been poor because we are not consistent and our organization has grown too complex,” Hayward said.
“At the root of all this is a need to change our behaviors.”
This seems to align with some of the CSB statements regarding a variety of redundant processes including multiples of incident investigation tools.
However, this sounds somewhat like blame: He (Hayward) also said BP was “making good progress” on improving safety by ensuring workers with the right skills are placed in the right jobs and that they can make professional judgments without “unnecessary interference.” This issue was raised during the failed pipeline in Alaska where conversations revolved around an apparently over-zealous and forceful budget cutter. Apparently their review systems allowed his voice to be heard above all the others.
To answer the question, “Has bp found the root cause?”; it is hard to say but they are addressing management system issues. What constitutes “organizational complexity” and how it effects bp’s safety performance remains to be understood and addressed. Many companies could say they experience organizational complexity. That in itself does not imply paling performance.
Best wishes to bp as they pull themselves out of this abyss.
Here is the path to the now archived article: http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2007_4441117
Comment by Mike Rodriguez — November 22, 2007 @ 8:25 pm