Prioritizing safety and quality: A blueprint for outage success

Mitigating risk: What is Outage Risk Profile?

The Outage Risk Profile, previously Site Risk Profile, is a process that involves assessing risk both 30 and 90 days before an outage starts. Our Outage Risk Profile team comprised of cross-functional experts who evaluate potential risks that may need to be mitigated at the site before the outage begins. During the assessment, our experts are looking at many different factors, including the training and competency of the crew who will be on-site during the outage, whether we have the right tools and equipment to be able to perform the job safely, emergency preparedness, and many other topics as well. If any gaps are found, we implement an action plan to mitigate them before the outage begins so that when our teams arrive on-site for the outage, they're ready and have everything they need to be able to work safely.

Mitigating risk: What is Lockout-Tagout?

Lockout-Tagout (LOTO) is a safety procedure used across industries as a safe method of working on hazardous equipment and is mandated by law in some countries to ensure that dangerous equipment is properly shut off and cannot be started up again until maintenance or repair work is complete. LOTO requires hazardous energy sources to be "isolated and rendered inoperative" before work begins on equipment. Isolated power sources are then physically locked (via a lock or lock block), and a tag is placed on the lock identifying the worker and the reason why the LOTO was placed on it. If LOTO practices are not observed, employees can be seriously injured or even killed by the machinery and equipment they work on or around.

GE Vernova and its Gas Power One Field Services collaborate with you in your preplanning meetings to help you establish your LOTO goals. Then, we help your team implement and follow a logical LOTO sequence.

Prioritizing safety from start to finish

At GE Vernova, we put safety first and last at every site and every outage, with reductions in the severity of injuries and incidents coupled with improvements in leading safety indicators that demonstrate the efficiency of our safety execution. The emphasis on empowering employees to stop working when safety or quality issues arise reinforces a culture that prioritizes employee and customer well-being above all else. With supportive leadership and a commitment to continuous improvement, we are dedicated to further enhancements in safety performance, and ensuring the well-being of all workforces remains crucial in all our operations.

Enhancing operational quality

The journey towards enhancing operational quality and minimizing major quality events has made significant strides in recent years. We are taking a proactive approach, focusing on fortifying audit programs, quality control, assurance mechanisms, and efforts to reduce human errors. Here are some key points supporting this progress:

• Reduction in major quality events: Over the past five years, there has been a decrease in significant quality events, resulting in fewer days of lost generation for customers and an increase in customer satisfaction.
• Proactive measures: Emphasis on audit programs, quality control, and assurance initiatives to embed quality throughout all processes - from planning and resourcing to execution.
• Live Outage and field procedure simplification: A significant aspect of quality enhancements involves streamlining field procedures and incorporating quality control checkpoints into the Live Outage platform, ensuring timely dissemination of accurate information.
• Collaborative efforts with customers: Collaborative efforts with customers are vital for addressing challenges such as foreign material exclusion and ensuring alignment on quality control points, tooling, materials, and resources during on-site operations.
• Importance of LOTO: The Lockout-Tagout protocol is a vital safety and quality measure. This protocol holds everyone accountable for maintaining safety and quality standards.
• Continuous improvement: Despite progress, there remains room for improvement in enhancing quality control points. We are committed to refining processes and delivering superior outcomes.

Insight from our experts

Are you interested in learning more about GE Vernova's safety and quality procedures? Take this opportunity to watch our webinar, "Safety, quality & on-time execution: Planning for your next outage," on-demand today. Our experts discussed these topics at length and many more. They will share some of the latest developments GE Vernova has made in safety, quality, and on-time execution. They will also recommend how you can proactively influence your next outages to ensure they run smoothly.