Root Cause Analysis Tip: Where Do You Need to Install Cameras and Microphones to Improve Your Investigations?
“WASHINGTON — Accident investigators uncovered such egregious behavior by train operators in the fatal 2008 accident near Los Angeles that they suggested Thursday that all railroads monitor crews with video surveillance.
In a controversial recommendation intended to draw a line in the sand against the rapid rise in accidents triggered by distractions from cellphones and other technology, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) not only endorsed placing video cameras in train cabs, but said railroads should regularly monitor the videos to ensure that engineers follow safety rules.“
These recommendations by the NTSB will not only help improve the accountability for and the enforcement of SPAC (Standards, Policies, and Administrative Controls), they will also make future investigations much easier.
Have you thought about video/audio monitoring of key personnel and workspaces to provide increased accountability, better enforcement of SPAC, and better root cause analysis?
Maybe now is the time to suggest it…
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February 6th, 2010 at 4:02 am
I totally agree with you, Mark on this. I work at Bulyanhulu Gold Mine, one of the Barrick Gold Corporation’s mine sites. It is an underground mine which uses paste (a concrete-like mixture of thickened tailings, cement and aggregate) to backfill the mined stopes. The paste is sent from the mixing plant to the stopes via a network of pipes. Over a period of the past 24 months we have experienced a series of blockages which costed the mine handsomely. Root causes were initially very difficult to ascertain due to lack of history of events. The trending of gauges and instruments has enabled us (the investigators) to uncover information that even the operator on duty at the time of failure could not have pieced up. Also plant operators are now more careful to follow the procedures because they understand that causes of failures can not be hidden any more, and no one wants be found in failure to follow the procedure as a root of a problem.
February 6th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
Interesting.
A driving study that used cameras in cars found out that accidents had much different causes than the causes reported to the police.
Mark
February 16th, 2010 at 1:20 pm
The laws surrounding privacy in Alberta prohibit the use of microphones and live monitoring of video feeds. However, the video can be reviewed in the event of an incident or suspected violations of company policies. Unfortunately, I believe that this is the new reality at workplaces.