Committed HSE management Vs TQM: Is there any difference?

Safe performance of oilfield service operations at unfamiliar customer installations requires service personnel that are highly trained and motivated. When such operations are made in over sixty countries with an independent, multi-cultural work force, an additional level of difficulty in achieving an improved level of HSE (Health, Safety & Environment) performance is introduced. Recognizing these challenges, one company set out in 1989 to implement a comprehensive HSE management system suited to this environment. The system, described here, was launched with total commitment and participation of all levels of management and was designed to empower the work force rather than force them into compliance. This included a realignment of management priorities to give HSE a primary place along with other management responsibilities. One central theme of the system is a single standard applied to all HSE actions, throughout the world and at all levels of the Company. Thus, for example, all employees including all managers go through the same basic HSE training courses on a regular basis. After six years, a cultural change has taken place, along with a notable reduction in both accident frequency and severity, measured in terms of lost workdays. This reduction in lost workdays is an easilymore » quantifiable cost saving which by far outweighs the total cost of the HSE system implementation. While the HSE management system was designed to specifically meet the needs of the company, the techniques used closely parallel those of Total Quality Management (TQM), which, in the last years, has gained momentum as a {open_quotes}new paradigm{close_quotes} in the HSE field. In this company`s experience, a common sense application of sound management to the HSE process has led to a TQM system.« less