Tryg Forsikring


BUILDING SAFETY

Problem descriptions - short summary

WP1 Human and Organisational Contributions to Resilience
The objective of WP1 is to develop new knowledge concerning how organisations and humans contribute to resilience of an existing technological system, and knowledge concerning how improvisation may contribute to resilient organisations. The problem description introduces the concepts of resilience and resilience engineering, establishes the scope for the literature review on resilience; and specifies the empirical research activity for the study of incidents and near-misses. The memo also includes an appendix that documents ideas and hypotheses formulated by the project group in the early stages of Building Safety.

WP2 Decision Making and Handling of Conflicting Objectives
The objective of WP2 is to develop principles for organisation of decision-making processes in cooperation rooms to facilitate that safety goals are adequately balanced vis-Ă -vis other goals. Based on these principles, requirements for staff training will be derived. If possible, the study will comprise the development of a specific training program, and a test of this program in an experimental study. The memo describes the user needs, provides a brief account of key theories on decision making, goal conflicts, and cooperation, and indicates how these issues will be approached by WP2. The problem description further documents the research approach, account for a literature review, and outlines possible directions for the empirical work.

WP3 Technological Changes Effect on Resilience (Adaptation to new technology)
The objective of WP3 is to develop new knowledge on how technological development affects resilience, and how different development processes call for different approaches to HSE management. More specifically, WP3 will develop knowledge on how collaboration technology influences resilience, both positively and negatively. It will focus on how HSE management and the organisational efforts of personnel training and usage of tools for decision support may support operators’ decision making and facilitate and improve resilience. The memo describes a preliminary indication of research needs, the links between WP2 and WP3, and some initial thoughts on empirical work.

WP4 Early Warnings of Major Accidents
The objective of WP4 is to provide early warnings of major accidents, which may require the development of new models and methods, or the adaptation of existing ones. This will be useful for providing early warnings of major accidents both in general, during petroleum exploration and production in the northern regions, and specifically during the operation of the Goliat field in the Barents Sea. The objective of early warnings is to signal the need to take actions in order to avoid accidents or reduce the risk of accidents. Actions, and thus also the need for early warnings, may be taken at different levels in an organization; by operators, supervisors, or managers. The memo describes the challenges related to early warnings of major accidents, and provides explicit statement of research questions to be addressed in WP4.

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Published March 14, 2008

Building Safety in Petroleum Exploration and Production in the Northern Regions