Developing Safety Management Systems (SMS) Models

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Increasingly, Canadian engineers have adopted risk-informed approaches to design, construct, and operate facilities. Yet, few engineers have comprehensive expertise in identifying and managing risk or understanding how the various management systems (project management, safety management, risk management, etc.) interact. In 2015 in Canada, there were over 756,000 injury claims, 232,000 with time lost from the job, and 852 fatalities from occupational injuries and disease. Such incidents also result in environmental damage and significant business losses. Engineers failed to foresee and prevent these incidents; despite that our Code of Ethics states that protection of the public is paramount. Even after highly visible, high-consequence incidents, companies fail to fix the root causes due to an emphasis on production over safety, compliance-based (CYA) safety programs, and blame-oriented culture.******These failures are not surprising; however, as Safety Management Systems (SMS) tend to overlook: i) production versus safety demands, ii) integration of competencies and organizational culture promoted by different management systems, and/or iii) contracting as means of outsourcing risk. The objective of my research program is to enhance SMS modeling by incorporating these missing elements. ******Overall, my research has the potential to make several important contributions over the next five years: ******> First, I will identify, operationalize, and model the relationships amongst an expanded set of SMS elements for key performance indicators used by engineering companies.******> Second, I will apply this model to an expanded set of companies (e.g., construction owners, prime contractors, subcontractors) to examine how the model's parameters and resulting performances vary by organizational type. ******> Third, I will examine the applicability of this model to inter-organizational projects (owners → prime contractor → subcontractors) in various industries (e.g., mining versus refining) to examine how competencies ? such as a refinery's use of process safety management techniques ? may be conveyed to other project/operations partners like tailings.******Thus, the relative effectiveness of differing practice and process prescriptions can be assessed to make the ‘business case' for their implementation. This research will be used to promote safer and more productive work environments and the overall competitiveness of Canadian industry.