The ‘Watermelon’ Effect: Does a green dashboard mean a healthy facility?
Key learning from the accidents at Texas City and Buncefield in 2005 was the need for improved Process Safety leadership and the development of effective metrics to monitor performance. “The 100 largest losses” published by Marsh insurance, shows that the rate of progress has been slow, with accidents rates continuing at a fairly constant rate over past decades despite great efforts to improve Process Safety Management arrangements. This data raises doubts over how well the process industry is maintaining a ‘chronic sense of unease’ towards major accident hazards.
This paper introduces the ‘Watermelon Effect’, a concept that was developed at recent ABB workshops attended by senior Process Safety professionals. This is related to the use of process safety metrics and dashboards, which are now commonly used at leadership level to manage process safety risks. The outer layer of the Watermelon represents the ‘Green’ indicators that suggest ‘all is well’, and can support an atmosphere of complacency by the management team. Digging below the surface of the Watermelon quickly reveals red flesh inside, representing lower level process safety indicators where there may be significant impairment to key barriers.
At the ABB workshop, 80% of the attendees considered their company to have an average or weak ‘chronic sense of unease’, suggesting there is much room for improvement. This view was supported by a question on ‘How strong is the watermelon effect”, with 30% feeling it was strong or very strong in their companies. When asked for key concerns about avoiding a Buncefield type accident in their companies, the top responses related to; Leadership, Competence, Complacency, and a ‘compliance with standards’ culture. When asked about how to improve, many highlighted the need for managers to take ownership and be held to account for process safety performance.
With regards to Process Safety metrics, the industry appears to be a long way from consistent measures of process safety performance, as has been achieved for Occupational Health and Safety using injury rates. The definition of a Process Safety Incident currently varies greatly between sectors, and even at site level within the same organisation, making it difficult to compare performance. Lower level ‘leading indicators’ of performance are not always effective, often reflecting what is easy to measure, rather than driving improvement in areas of weakness.
The “Watermelon Effect” concept is intended to raise awareness of a trend towards a dashboard culture, with the dangers of not challenging apparent good performance. This paper will describe the background to this model, the key findings from the ABB workshop. It will conclude that avoiding complacency and maintaining a ‘chronic sense of unease’ towards major accident hazards, is a major challenge for people working in the high hazard sector.
