Best Practices

Over twenty years ago I was leading the ASM Consortium. During my time there, one of the questions we wanted to better understand and answer was, “What exactly is an abnormal situation?” One of the ways we did this was simply by going to various sites and discussing that subject with the teams there. By doing that, we were able to look at the impact of all the different management systems — the training systems, the procedure systems, the lockout tagout systems, the workflow systems, etc., — and identify best practices.

Companies had begun developing their own best practices in these areas. We found that companies like Exxon Mobile had actually developed an OIMS system that included an identification of those best practices of the management systems. So we had the opportunity to visit those sites and understand why they were identified as a best practice. Then we went to Chevron. Then we compared them to BP. Then we went on to Union Carbide, and various other different companies. And at the end of that, after looking at different practices at different sites all around the world, we were able to come up with a list of what we call the ASM Operations Best Practices.

Our best practice studies have kept on evolving, and we’ve been able to provide some great benefits to our customers in showing them how companies have really achieved some significant improvement in different areas. We demonstrate to our clients how they can learn from these companies, and then how to apply the best practices at their own sites.