In our work with companies implementing or changing their EHS Software, we often hear this quote or a variation of it:
“I can’t figure out my REAL trending root causes. I have a hundred root causes from various processes from multiple systems. Not everything translates”
When we hear this, we very quickly hear some combination of the below:
- The incidents are recorded in multiple systems
- The different systems record data with varying degrees of granularity
- Investigations are captured in multiple systems, and not with Incidents
- Different business units use different root cause methodologies
- Cannot follow my root causes through to my action items
Your organization is not alone if you are experiencing this. Our clients range from the largest oil companies to mid-tier refineries. They all experience this to some degree and it is a problem.
We find that many companies have multiple EHS software systems. A common scenario we see is that a company invests heavily in one EHS software system, but allow other parallel systems to stay in place. You might have several locations using one investigation tool, while the rest use an
other, and a third manages the entire thing by paper. You might have an influencer at a location who has an allegiance to a specific software, or a business unit was purchased and uses a different software system.
Read More: Reasons you need DecisionEHS >>
Read More: EHS Process Audit Review >>
Read More: EHS Software Selection >>
Read More: EHS Software – Questions to Ask >>
It’s hard to convince some people to change their incident and investigation software, but we have yet to see a company still running QuickBooks at a location when the rest of the company is using SAP. Think about it.
Even if you settle on a single investigation data capture source system, you need to ensure that you are capturing a common set of root causes. Whether you land on Taproot®, DNV SCAT®, 5-Why or some amalgamated corporate list of root causes, you need to have a consistent corporate list of root causes to which all investigations resolve. We have helped companies move to a single incident/investigation source system. We have also helped companies work through the various methodologies and land on a corporate standard. Many investigation methodologies come with their own desktop application. We have interfaced these tools into the corporate systems as well. This allows for the flexibility and convenience of disconnected investigation tool, while bringing the data together in the corporate repository for process facilitation, trending and reporting.
Letting this go on means companies compromise their safety and risk management. When we cannot get consistent data to investigate incidents, incidents will repeat.
We have helped companies find solutions to the variations in data for root causes. We do this by improving their EHS software. Contact us to find out more.