Managing protection in high reliability organisations in an emerging country context

Purpose – Catastrophic failures in high-reliability installations result from technical and human factors. The purpose of this paper is to use reports of the BP Texas refinery accident and the UK Buncefield oil storage explosions as the basis for exploring how protection and safety are managed in high-reliability manufacturing organisations in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach – A survey of 21 high-reliability firms was undertaken to establish how firms perceived their safety and protection systems in relation to the findings of the Buncefield and BP Texas accidents. Interviews were held with staff in two firms. Findings – The study identifies technical and behavioural shortcomings in managing safety and protective systems in manufacturing organisations. There are profound differences in perceptions of managers, supervisors and operators regarding a number of safety-related factors. Firms fail to identify all protective systems. Essential failure data for determining appropriate policies for failu...

[1]  Jeffrey T. Macher.  Technological Development and the Boundaries of the Firm: A Knowledge-Based Examination in Semiconductor Manufacturing , 2006, Manag. Sci..

[2]  Matloub Hussain,et al.  A study of technology adoption in manufacturing firms , 2012 .

[3]  Peter Kawalek,et al.  The Long Conversation: Learning How to Master Enterprise Systems , 2009 .

[4]  S. Ghoshal,et al.  Social Capital, Intellectual Capital, and the Organizational Advantage , 1998 .

[5]  Jan W. Rivkin,et al.  Complexity, Networks and Knowledge Flow , 2002 .

[6]  Jeremy Galbreath,et al.  Which resources matter the most to firm success? An exploratory study of resource-based theory , 2005 .

[7]  Roger E. Bohn,et al.  Chapter 17 – Measuring and Managing Technological Knowledge , 1998 .

[8]  Sameer Kumar,et al.  Risk mitigation in offshoring of business operations , 2009 .

[9]  J. Busby,et al.  Analysing the risks of individual and collective intentionality , 2008 .

[10]  A. Nerkar,et al.  Beyond local search: boundary‐spanning, exploration, and impact in the optical disk industry , 2001 .

[11]  Curba Morris Lampert,et al.  Entrepreneurship in the large corporation: a longitudinal study of how established firms create breakthrough inventions , 2001 .

[12]  Scott D. Sagan.  The Limits of Safety: Organizations, Accidents, and Nuclear Weapons , 1993 .

[13]  William M. Evan,et al.  Technological catastrophes: their causes and prevention , 2002 .

[14]  J. S. Busby,et al.  Loss of Defensive Capacity in Protective Operations: The Implications of the Überlingen and Linate Disasters , 2007 .

[15]  Roger G. Schroeder,et al.  Knowledge management through technology strategy: implications for competitiveness , 2011 .

[16]  V. Govindarajan,et al.  Strategic innovation and the science of learning , 2004, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[17]  Michael Song,et al.  The Effect of Perceived Technological Uncertainty on Japanese New Product Development , 2001 .

[18]  B. Twiss.  Managing Technological Innovation , 1974 .

[19]  D. Wilemon,et al.  A Model for Studying R&D–Marketing Interface in the Product Innovation Process , 1986 .

[20]  Eric Rebentisch,et al.  A study of technology transfer in a multinational cooperative joint venture , 1996 .

[21]  R. Daft,et al.  The information environments of organizations , 1987 .

[22]  R. Yin.  Case Study Research: Design and Methods , 1984 .

[23]  E. Scott Geller,et al.  Critical Success Factors for Behavior-Based Safety: A Study of Twenty Industry-wide Applications , 1999 .

[24]  Frank T. Rothaermel,et al.  Ambidexterity in Technology Sourcing: The Moderating Role of Absorptive Capacity , 2009, Organ. Sci..

[25]  Imanol Núñez,et al.  Safety capital: the management of organizational knowledge on occupational health and safety , 2011 .

[26]  J. Moubray.  Reliability-centred maintenance , 1995 .

[27]  Uday Kumar,et al.  On aircraft scheduled maintenance program development , 2010 .

[28]  E. Hippel.  Sticky Information and the Locus of Problem Solving: Implications for Innovation , 1994 .

[29]  Todd R. La Porte,et al.  Regulatory Compliance and the Ethos of Quality Enhancement: Surprises in Nuclear Power Plant Operations1 , 1995 .

[30]  Ahm Shamsuzzoha,et al.  Information dependencies within product architecture: prospects of complexity reduction , 2011 .

[31]  Steven T. Walsh,et al.  Organization technologies, AMT and competent workers , 2009 .

[32]  Andrew L. Johnson,et al.  Estimating the efficiency of American petroleum refineries under varying assumptions of the disposability of bad outputs , 2010 .

[33]  José F. Molina-Azorín,et al.  Do drivers matter for the benefits of ISO 14001 , 2011 .

[34]  Jeanne Liedtka,et al.  The Generative Cycle: Linking Knowledge and Relationships , 1997 .

[35]  K. A. Adebiyi,et al.  Towards setting a sustainable manufacturing safety programme in Nigeria , 2009 .

[36]  Ashutosh Tiwari,et al.  Capturing and evaluating process information for high‐performance complex manufacturing operations , 2010 .

[37]  Jeremy Busby,et al.  Failure to Mobilize in Reliability-Seeking Organizations: Two Cases from the UK Railway , 2006 .

[38]  Robert W. Zmud,et al.  The Influence of IT Management Practice on IT Use in Large Organizations , 1994, MIS Q..

[39]  Martine R. Haas,et al.  Knowledge Gathering, Team Capabilities, and Project Performance in Challenging Work Environments , 2006, Manag. Sci..

[40]  A. Margaryan,et al.  How organisations learn from safety incidents: a multifaceted problem , 2010 .

[41]  Ian Hipkin,et al.  TQM and BPR: lessons for maintenance management , 2000 .

[42]  Jing Cai,et al.  Research on a Case-Based Decision Support System for Aircraft Maintenance Review Board Report , 2006, ICIC.

[43]  Ibrahim M. Shaluf,et al.  An overview on ADCO crude oil storage tanks , 2010 .

[44]  H. A. Ajimotokan.  Towards a rigorous equation‐oriented technique for sustainable manufacturing safety programme , 2011 .

[45]  Patrick D.T. O'Connor,et al.  The Reliability Handbook , 1983 .

[46]  Waldemar Karwowski,et al.  Analysis of self‐reported accidents attributed to advanced manufacturing systems , 1995 .

[47]  A. Field.  Discovering statistics using SPSS for Windows. , 2000 .

[48]  Claus W. Langfred.  The paradox of self‐management: individual and group autonomy in work groups , 2000 .

[49]  Adrian L Sepeda,et al.  Lessons learned from process incident databases and the process safety incident database (PSID) approach sponsored by the Center for Chemical Process Safety. , 2006, Journal of hazardous materials.

[50]  Qiang Tu,et al.  Absorptive capacity: Enhancing the assimilation of time-based manufacturing practices , 2006 .

[51]  Pedro de Faria,et al.  International cooperation on innovation: Firm-level evidence from two European countries , 2012 .

[52]  Heather A. Priest,et al.  The impact of organizational practices on safety in manufacturing: A review and reappraisal , 2005 .

[53]  Clayton M. Christensen,et al.  Why hard-nosed executives should care about management theory. , 2003, Harvard business review.

[54]  Yang Gao,et al.  Designation of an interactive oil spill management system , 2010 .

[55]  James T. Reason,et al.  Managing the risks of organizational accidents , 1997 .

[56]  Michael J. Lynskey,et al.  The Transfer of Resources and Competencies for Developing Technological Capabilities - The Case of Fujitsu-ICL , 1999 .

[57]  Mehmet Savsar.  Analysis and modeling of maintenance operations in the context of an oil filling plant , 2011 .

[58]  Palmer Morrel-Samuels,et al.  Merged Datasets: An Analytic Tool for Evidence-Based Management , 2009 .

[59]  José Arana Varela,et al.  Relationships among functional units and new product performance: The moderating effect of technological turbulence , 2010 .