Happy New Year and Good Luck

When I see people in top hats and pigs, my first thought is not new beginnings or good luck.  In Germany, they symbolize those things and can be seen in most stores at the end of the old year.   I hope that 2011 is a great year for you, and you are as prosperous as a pig.  I hope you climb high on the ladder of satisfaction in all areas of life and that if you are a chimney sweep, you remain safe in your job.

Let’s apply these old practices to 2011.  Pigs represented prosperity for agricultural families because they provided food, fertilizer, and more pigs!   A pig displays its ability to convert what it consumes into energy.  Therefore, the gift of a candy pig on New Year’s Eve could symbolize good wishes that the recipient prosper, using one’s strengths and forgetting past failures.

The chimney sweep cleans the chimney and the hearth, and lots of people will be cleaning homes, offices, psyches this week and next.  It’s out with clutter and unhealthy practices.   It’s a new beginning, and that requires a clean slate(and chimney).

Look around your workplace.  Would it benefit from a thorough cleaning and purging of old materials?   Could it be a valuable exercise to identify what would make 2011 a more excellent year in managing the risks of your business, including the risks of human factors.  Look at the organization, the job, the individual.  What habits or practices cause problems?  What things, big or small, could improve the work environment?

Pipeline control centers face a big challenge in 2011.  They have to develop and implement a control room management and human factors plan.  This is going to require a mindset, a paradigm shift, in changing practices that may have been followed for many years.   Although the rule requires that changes affecting pipeline safety be correctly managed, the development and implementation of this rule also needs to be managed well and timely.

Sweep clean, be as prosperous as a pig, implement all changes safely, and happy new year!

Posted December 29th, 2010 in Human Factors, Observations, Operational Excellence

Max Kick, No Sugar – A Way to Manage Fatigue?

I walked into a quick mart in Heidelberg, Germany.  It’s interesting that the Germans also are using energy drinks as a way to get some quick energy.  In pipeline control centers, I notice that the younger employees use energy drinks instead of coffee.  I asked our host, an Army employee, if it is similar in the Army.  He said, “Oh, yeah.  The old guys drink coffee, and the youngsters use energy drinks.

When we were at a hotel for military personnel and their guests last week, the buffet restaurant had huge containers of regular coffee and one pot of decaf coffee.  I am used to seeing similar sized pots of regular and decaf coffee in hotels.  Our host said that very few military people drink decaf, since they need the caffeine boost.

What about you?  What about your co-workers?   Are you caffeinated or decaffeinated?  Do you use coffee or energy drinks?   Are these substitutes for adequate sleep?

Posted December 29th, 2010 in Human Factors, Managing Fatigue, Observations

Assumptions Cause Problems, Particularly in Houston

After the API Control Room Forum, I had a nice lunch with Steve Will of Evosites.  The company designs and builds control room consoles, and my clients are interested in the “sit and stand” console.  When I went back to the hotel to get a cab to the airport, Orest Hodinski from Kinder Morgan Canada and one of the pipeline controllers were sitting outside.  They also were going to the airport.  Orest asked me if I wanted to share a cab.  That was nice,  and I was glad to share a taxi.

We got in the cab, and I noticed we were getting on I-610 North.  I then remembered that one of the two airports in Houston was Bush International and the other was Hobby.  My flight was out of Hobby; theirs was out of Bush International.  Thankfully, we were still close to the hotel.  The driver made a loop and I took another taxi to Hobby.  Hope Orest, Anderson, and Wayne made their flight to Edmonton.

All flights in my hometown of Atlanta are from one airport.  I need to stop making assumptions that there is only one airport in other cities, even if  usually fly into Hobby Airport on my frequent trips to Houston.

Posted November 20th, 2010 in Human Factors, Observations