Ports Australia

Safety Journey

23 October 2014

By Jim Cooper, Chief Executive Officer, Port of Portland

Safety management – our journey

2012-2014

Installed a new safety management system

in early 2014

Today I will give you insights to what

worked and what did not

As you listen consider what you have in

common with our journey

We are happy to pass on our experience to

the Ports community

In early 2012 Management realised that

the old safety management system was not

working

A system had been in place for 10 years

When it was audited it passed, BUT,

it was not effective. It was bureaucratic

and employees did not understand it

Safety management – our journey

2012-2014

At a Management retreat in early 2012 we

decided to act and renovate the system, but

first we needed advice

A formal review by external safety experts

confirmed Management's view

Consensus of Management and the safety

advisers was to start again

We visited Port of Brisbane and reviewed

their system, which was excellent

Call to Arms – by Management

Call to Arms - Boardroom

The Board was reviewing Management’s

report of a heavy weather incident where

a ship broke 6 lines in rapid succession

The Call to Arms by the Board of Directors

– came separate to Management's

realisation

The result was rapid acceleration and the

safety revolution!

Call to Arms Boardroom

This is how I felt that day in the Boardroom!

Call to Arms from the Boardroom

The benefits

Call to arms by the Board is important

because it results in the CEO and

Executive Team being empowered to

make change

Endorsement and interest from the Board

and CEO is key to cultural change

Finding a safety expert

� What skills are needed?

� We needed a systems

expert with expertise in risk

assessment because we

wanted a new system

� Depends upon where you

are on your journey

A safety philosophy helps

We chose a philosophy

called "High Reliability

Organisations"

Book written by Emeritus

Professor Andrew

Hopkins from Australian

National University

Specialist in sociology

and corporate safety

,..

10

Where to start in system design?

Port Activity Map – this really helped

Activity-based risk assessments

Each port will be different

depending on your

business model but the

above Port Activity Map

is a good place to start

The heart of the system –

Standard Operating Procedures (SOP's)

These were derived from the Port Activity

Map

We distilled ours down to 13 SOP's

We discovered later that these are the

heart of the system, so they need the most

attention

Each SOP contains its own risk

assessment for that procedure

Port of Portland 13 SOP’s

� Pilotage Operations

� Towage Operations

� Mooring Operations

� Management of Traffic Movement

� Mobile Plant Operations - Mineral Sands

� Management of Plant – General

� Management of Land Based Tenants

� Management of Contractors

� Management of Hazardous Chemicals – General

� Management of Rail Activities

� Management of Dredging Operations

� Management of Sand Shifting

� Launch Operations

Process of developing the SOP's

o Arduous

o Requires involvement of employees who

perform the tasks

o These employees are operators not systems

expert – they will find this difficult

o Persevere, because the quality of the input

here leads to be best, simplest procedures

later

Competency Based Training Document

for each SOP

o This simplified everything and made the

SOP's real for staff

o Our new Manager Safety, Health and

Environment developed these

o He observed that in addition to a

detailed procedure, he needed a

training guide for each procedure

which he could train and then test

employees against

A new senior Safety Manager with deep

operational experience

� We searched for a new safety manager for

12 months

� We wanted someone with deep operational

safety experience, something we were

missing in our team

� We wanted strong inter-personal skills

because the task of rolling out the new

system would require much diplomacy

"and we got Terry!"

One page Safety Strategy

• Endorsed by the Board

• Used monthly by Management

• Incorporates a new safety logo,

which we developed ourselves

• The safety logo is now on

signage throughout the Port

and on our correspondence

Safety Strategy

New Safety Logo

One Page Monthly Dashboard

Collecting weekly safety information

� Safety observations

� Safety contacts

� Incident reports

� Weekly safety summary

� RADARS – mooring

� RADARS - general

RADAR

Recognise the Hazard

Assess the Risks

Develop Control Measures

Act Safely

Record and Report

Conclusions

• Cultural change must come from the CEO and

the CEO must be empowered by the Board to

make change

• Standard operating procedures are the heart of

your system

• Check that your Safety Manager has the skills for

where you are in your safety journey

• Perseverance is key in setting up the system – we

will have taken 3 years in all to implement our

new system.

Remember how I felt8

and this is today.