Process Hazard Management Services

We don’t know when or exactly how the economy will rebound, but it will happen.  I am not an economist, but I do not expect a sudden or radical upswing in the economy. There will be no fanfare announcing we have recovered.  To me, this feels like late 1975, when the US economy was recovering from  another serious downturn.

My observations from that time reveal a number of concerns especially when transposed on the losses of experience and expertise leading up to the present downturn:

1. Many of our leaders have not experienced this and may be reluctant to go too far preparing for the recovery until they see over whelming evidence of the recovery.  This may cause  restarting or increasing operations to be done more quickly.
2. Losses of experience and expertise across the organization may have been lost or forgotten over the tough times. The tasks may have been delegated to different people who may not be prepared to handle a large influx of system and equipment changes.
3. Staff organizations may have taken the brunt of the personnel cutbacks. Since they are not a direct part of the manufacturing process, their role in recovery may be overlooked.
4. There may be a backlog of deferred activities, maintenance inspections, operating procedure changes and training are likely suspects. This backlog may exist due to processes being idled for a period, and these systems did not require attention.
5. There will be an influx of furloughed employees returning and new employees being hired. This taxes many of the operating systems from HR, and quality to operations, maintenance and training.

Here are a few questions for comment and discussion:

” What is your company doing to prepare for the economic recovery? “

“If you were to begin developing a plan for economic recovery, where would you begin?”

What are the top 5 concerns you have when looking toward the potential upswing in the economy?”

(I selected 5 do make you reflect on those that are unique or imperative to a safe recovery)

CCPS is developing a project around this topic and getting input from a broader audience will benefit the effort. If you company has a system for addressing these concerns and you can share it, please e-mail it to me at john@phms.us.com or make a comment here. You company’s name can be removed to provide anonymity, but the company’s support would be recognized in the acknowledgments.

John Herber

CCPS Staff Consultant