Our story: Loss Prevention SystemTM
Systematic program helps create a workplace culture focused on safety
Mark Smith, Kelly Dooley and Mark Evans are part of the Nanticoke refinery’s LPS core team.
Safety has always been a priority at Imperial, and the company’s enviable record in this area was enhanced in 2009 as its Downstream or petroleum products operations, including refineries and chemical manufacturing plants, achieved their best-ever safety performance.
Much of the improvement can be credited to the ongoing implementation of the comprehensive Loss Prevention SystemTM (LPS). First applied by Imperial at its Dartmouth refinery starting in 2007, LPS is designed to prevent losses and improve workplace safety as well as operating reliability by using behaviour-based tools that apply to all employees and contractors, along with proven operational and safety management techniques.
“The beauty of LPS is that it is a formal system that is simple but also highly structured and disciplined, and it focuses not only on safety but also on environmental, operating, financial, process-related and other losses that can be prevented by changing behaviour,” says Jim Glenen, refinery process manager at Imperial’s Sarnia, Ont., complex. “Through a combination of formal training, leadership teams, observation and discussion among workplace peers, formalized self-assessment, reporting and stewardship, it systematically creates a workplace culture in which every individual truly cares about eliminating incidents and preventing losses, for his or her own sake and for the sake of others.”
Janet Matsushita, currently manager of Nanticoke refinery and formerly of Dartmouth refinery, agrees. “The reason we committed to LPS at Dartmouth is that it is very simple to understand, and it leads to sustained, long-term safety and loss-prevention results, rather than short-term benefits that soon fall away,” Matsushita says. “As the culture ‘gets it,’ every person on the site, at every level, cares strongly for everyone else and feels compelled to assess risks, intervene when necessary and suggest better, safer, more reliable ways of working and operating.”
Matsushita also notes that after LPS was implemented at Dartmouth refinery safety performance improved dramatically, while at Nanticoke, where implementation began in 2009, the safety record for the year was the best among Imperial’s refineries.