New Synfuels Plant software program improves incident reporting

A cross-section of employees designed the criteria for the software to handle the incident reports, whether it is a near miss or significant incident, in a real-time manner.

Basin Electric Power Cooperative - February 9, 2012

After nine months of gathering information and planning, a new software program to report incidents, like near misses, injuries, accidents, spills, etc., will be introduced to Great Plains Synfuels Plant employees. The HAZOX^© software system made its debut this week, according to John Hooker, Dakota Gas compliance program supervisor.

The Investigation MAT (Management Action Team) was given a goal a year ago to design a system to better track and report incidents, as well as have the ability to produce reports to show trends. “We will go from using five different forms to report incidents to a software program that will cover it all,” Hooker said. “It will definitely streamline the process, reduce paperwork and make for a more efficient way of reporting and resolving incidents.”

A cross-section of employees designed the criteria for the software to handle the incident reports, whether it is a near miss or significant incident, in a real-time manner. Hooker said each reported incident is electronically filed and immediately received by the employee’s supervisor, shift superintendent and compliance department.

The incident is scored by asking several questions that simply determine why it happened and what could be done so it doesn’t happen again. If the incident receives a score of 50 or less, it is classified as a near miss, and the supervisor and employee develop corrective actions. If the incident receives a score above 50, trained investigators from the compliance or safety departments formally investigate the incident using a root-cause methodology and identify corrective actions.

“The best part of the new system is that it requires immediate action,” Hooker said. “It’s a powerful communications tool that will produce quick response and valuable reports.”

The software was loaded to the servers early this week and training for core users is in progress. The software should be rolled out to all employees by early April.