Company’s Integrated Approach Tackles Fatigue Management
Authors: Wilson Adam 
Published: August 2017

This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights of paper SPE 185226, “Integrated Approach in Fatigue Management,” by M. Nizam Jemoin and Ahmad Khairi Abdullah, Petronas, prepared for the 2017 SPE Asia Pacific Health, Safety, Security, Environment, and Social Responsibility Conference, Kuala Lumpur, 4–6 April. The paper has not been peer reviewed.

In an effort to establish practical solutions to fatigue-related risk, Petronas created a task force that included specialists, plant-operation personnel, shift supervisors, and information-technology (IT) team members. Discussions with stakeholders included a detailed review of the shift-manning procedure and work-process evaluation to address fatigue risks, and an analysis was performed to determine common issues that require further mitigation efforts. This paper describes the integrated approach taken by the company to reinforce effective management of fatigue.

Introduction

Investigations into some of the worst industrial and environmental accidents have identified fatigue as a major contributor, although, in some of these cases, fatigue was not the only cause. Petronas has put in place a number of key controls to ensure that fatigue risks are managed accordingly at the workplace. These include a technical standard on management of fatigue, site procedures at operating units (e.g, shift-manning procedures, journey-management plans, and health-promotion programs), and audits to ensure compliance. Nonetheless, opportunities exist for improvement, particularly to reinforce the effective implementation of the program through integrated approaches that leverage IT and standardized work processes. Embedding fatigue management in day-to-day work processes is essential to achieve significant results in managing the risks.

Statement of Theory and Definitions

Fatigue is a progressive decline in alertness and performance caused by insufficient quality or quantity of sleep. This may result from extended work hours, overtime, shift work, insufficient opportunities for sleep, or the effects of sleep disorders or medical conditions that reduce sleep or increase sleepiness. Fatigue affects the ability to assess risk, increases willingness to accept risk, and decreases the ability to maintain attention. When fatigued, people find it more difficult to divide their attention adequately between multiple tasks and to plan for future actions.  Fatigued people are more likely to suffer lapses in concentration and are more easily distracted from the task at hand. The more tired people become, the more likely they are to cut corners and to accept lower standards in accuracy and performance.

Fatigue contributes to accidents by impairing performance and, at the extreme end of the scale, by causing people to fall asleep while working. Human error resulting from fatigue is now widely acknowledged as the cause of numerous workplace disasters. Many disasters began with initial difficulties such as technical faults, but, because of fatigue, the operators did not manage the situation adequately, allowing the situation to escalate to an accident.