Operational excellence is all about reducing risks, costs and complexities – today we have a definite advantage of being able to access data and work around it.

A recent research states that 23.18% of respondents cited leadership buy-in and understanding as their top critical challenge.

For EHS and OHS, actionable insights that are valuable help companies perform smartly and efficiently. A drive towards digital disruption of paper-based systems still in place is possible, and it requires a vision and strategy to accomplish.

Relying on business outcomes as priority

A single and a shared view of operational reality connects disparate processes, people and systems. Injuries are common at an industrial front, and most happen during the frontline work. Production is ongoing, and operational risks and human interactions collide – in the midst, sits hazard identification and risk analysis.

For industries, core focus remains –

Strategy: Create or enhance products and services for competitive advantage.

Data: Leverage information to effectively connect in operational, product and digital technologies and disciplines.

An employee is more receptive to the critical safety activities such as incident and near-miss reporting, observations and inspections when precise and instantaneous data capture is emphasized. Work-site presence is well ensured while confirming isolations, including other activities that demand on-site presence.

Breaking down the execution into small manageable chunks and establishing associated goals and success metrics – while we ponder over what needs to be done, here are some questions that can help you wonder what becomes necessary for brainstorming.

• How to get a line of sight on Operational Risk?
• Can we raise our risk management capabilities?
• How to manage workload against risk?
• How do we improve our frontline safety culture and behaviour, especially when people aren’t following the rules?
• Should we ideally allocate our resources more effectively?
• Can we have repeat incidents/high-potential incident?

A robust risk management solution is feasible through digital – identification and assessment of hazardous situations, control and mitigation of corrective and preventive actions, and monitoring and reviewing risks.

A paper-free digitized worker moves from a reactive position to a proactive one – and software plays a huge role in that. Whatever be the case, these solutions manifest themselves in no more permit queues, electronic permit signatures, ability to track worker locations via GPS in emergency.

Making a generic commitment to work around EHS and OHS requires weaving digital into the business fabric – making much commitments to execute them requires assistance from the safety professionals as well.

The knowing-doing gap

The pursuit of organizational fitness in EHS and OHS is just like physical fitness – no magical potions. Simply accepting the current organizational limitations help you prepare well for the happenstances ahead. There are opportunities for growth lying ahead.

Effective EHS management systems embed and integrate a wide range of capabilities and processes to achieve performance objectives and drive improvement.

Silos do not help in long term as people, processes and technologies now truly need to interconnect and move forward.

The fast-moving expectations dictate a fluid and evolving operating construct, and it effectively needs to accommodate a changing blend of existing, emerging, and new technology capabilities.