Apply PDCA approach to formulize ORM or EHS management

It is an easy and explicit framework for the implementation of any management. For instance, the British Health and Safety Executive (HSE), also changed their standardized health and safety management system from a POPMAR-model (policy, organizing, planning, measuring performance, auditing and review) to the PDCA cycle. This new model ‘achieves a balance between the systems and behavioral aspects of management’ (HSG65, 2013) so rather than being a stand-alone system, the PDCA structure presents this OHS-system as an integral system of the general management system. As a result, the procedures related to this system are more concise.

The Plan, Do, Check, and Act approach

Based on the British Health and Safety Executive, the HSG65 document has properly guided the plan, do, check and act phases, and compared the conventional health and safety management with process safety management. In this document, you can find the details of these steps. In this blog, the steps from the perspectives of ORM and EHS management are discussed.

Plan – Determine your policy/Plan for implementation

Risk management policy or EHS Policy is an organizational strategy. Your plan normally based on these policies is the blueprint of your ORM or EHS management system. Although the policy and plan do not guarantee that the organization will be accident or incident free, it shows the willingness and attitude of an organization toward EHS or risk control activities. Policy and plan are significant for a sustainable ORM or EHS management system. The management team needs to make a clear commitment about EHS performance or risk control according to them.

Do – Profile risks/Organize for health and safety/Implement your plan

After you set up the plan, you need to implement the plan. The executive plan for an operational risk management system contains profile and control risks. ISO 31000 (see ISO 31000 blog series) provides a typical risk analysis process and many techniques that can assist this process (see techniques in risk process in this blog). If you have any EHS management or ORM systems, you can implement a management plan according to the system’s guidelines. Here is an example of a holistic EHS management system, which shows how to implement an EHS management system in general.

Check – Measure performance (Monitor before events, investigate after events)

In the PDCA cycle, the check phase aims to check or observe the state of the ORM or EHS performance of an organization. You probably noticed that this phase is critical and difficult to perform well. It requires good information and reporting systems. Some information and reporting systems are based on accident theories and registration. Some others are specifically built to assist an ORM or EHS management audit. These systems can monitor the ORM or EHS performance before events or investigate observations or incidents after events. The monitoring indicators vary between ORM systems and EHS management systems. These need to be specified by your organization’s performance system.

Act – Review performance/Act on lessons learned

In the previous check phase, you obtain the monitoring information. In this phase, you will review and learn from this information, and then take action. In the risk management process in ISO standard, the review is one of the core components. We normally make, record, and execute actions in lessons learned from incidents or observations. However, the review of performance, as a subsequent step of monitoring, sometimes does not draw enough attention for some high-risk operations since it’s just in a learning loop rather than in the core of the control. In EHS management, management review has a broader meaning. It requires reviews of the suitability, adequacy, and effectiveness of the EHS management systems to be undertaken by top management at planned intervals. Act phase is able to keep the health and continual improvement of ORM or EHS management.

In short

In general, by applying the PDCA framework, you need to identify and develop Plan, Do, Check and Act phases. Each phase contains practical techniques and various content based on different systems and goals. The iterative running of this cycle is the key to the success of this approach. An organizational management system always can get continuous improvement using this cycle. Therefore, it is a constructive approach to either the ORM system or the EHS management system.

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