The Condition Reporting Process is an essential tool for Modern Industrial Organizations to maintain safety and environmental compliance while maximizing production. The OSHA requirements for accident/incident reporting created a need to gather information about incidents that cause personnel injuries so that they can be categorized, tracked and reported. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission promulgated requirements to identify and record incidents/problems so their cause can be determine and corrective actions can be taken. These regulations were soon followed by similar requirements promulgated by the International Standard Organization for quality and environmental standards. Within the Nuclear Industry, these regulations became known as problem reporting or corrective actions processes. These processes have evolved into a more comprehensive and continuous improvement approach that seeks to identify all conditions that are “not as they should be.” MetaPower uses the more comprehensive Condition Reporting (CR) approach to these processes. The CR process serves the problem and injury reporting requirements as well as the continuous improvement needs.
The Basis Condition Reporting Process is illustrated in Figure 1
Initiate CR: One of the primary purposes of the CR process is to identify everything that is “wrong” in the facility so that it can be investigated and its cause can be corrected. MetaPower provides “open” access to the Initiate Step to encourage this reporting. Other processes feed conditions to the CR Process. The most notable are the Assessment (Audit) Process and the Observations Process. The Assessment Process systematically compares the organization to established criteria to determine the compliance level. Findings are usually treated as conditions. The Observation Process requires management/supervision to routinely visits areas for which they are responsible to observe “conditions.” Significant “observations” are usually reported as Condition Reports.
Screen CR: The open Initiate CR Step of the CR process means that a wide variety of individuals will enter CR’s. Consequently, the process includes a Screen CR Step which is used to ensure that sufficient information is provided so that the CR can be processed. In particular, the Screen CR Step is used to identify urgent conditions and ensure that appropriate organizations are notified. CRs that are entered from another process may be allowed to bypass the Screen CR Step.
Review CR: Since the CR Process is designed to capture all problems in the organization, there is a Management Review Step where the organization’s leaders review the identified conditions to determine their disposition. Severe or high risk conditions are routed to the Analyze CR Step. If the condition is not significant, the Analyze CR step may be bypassed.
Analyze CR: The condition is investigated to determine the cause in the Analyze CR Step. There are two levels of cause analysis: apparent cause and root cause. The primary difference is the effort expended. Root cause analysis is an extensive effort to determine the underlying cause and is usually reserved for the most severe conditions. Apparent cause analysis is a more superficial effort to determine the direct cause of the condition. Once a cause is determined, the investigation develops recommendations to prevent the condition from reoccurring. The Analysis Report is reviewed and approved by management and attached to the CR. The recommendations are entered into a Work Action process and managed to completion.
Code CR: After CRs have been processed, they are routed to the Code CR Step where codes representing the business elements involved in the condition as well as the causes are recorded. These coded CRs are analyzed to detect trends that would indicate a developing problem. These trends can be documented on a separate CR and processed to the Analyze CR step where they will be subjected to a Common Cause Analysis
Close CR: In some cases it may be necessary to keep the CR “open” until all the associated actions associated with a CR have been completed. CRs that have this requirement are routed to the Close CR Step until the actions are completed.
Complete CR: Closed CRs are routed to the Complete Step where they are used in trending analysis to determine potential problems.
MetaPower uses our patented web based Business Process Designer to automate business processes and maintain a library of configured processes. These pre-configured processes are used “out of the box” or reconfigured by the users to accommodate their specific business situations.
