MANAMA: Bapco is well on its way to achieving its goal of world class operational excellence performance. It is now time to move from project implementation mode to embedding OE in the whole organization, according to the findings of a recent audit.
Bapco hosted 14 Chevron auditors, who are subject matter experts in their fields, to assess Bapco on the status of the company’s Operational Excellence (OE) journey.
Bapco started this journey about 3 years ago, and the purpose of the audit was to validate the work done to date and to ensure that the OE expectations and performance are in line with Chevron standards.
“This is the most extensive and comprehensive audit that has been performed at Bapco, with 14 auditors investigating our processes and standards for about two weeks,” Ebrahim Talib, Deputy Chief Executive, Bapco, said.
The closing meeting was attended by Bapco executive management, senior leadership teams and all OE process owners and custodians.
Talib thanked the Chevron auditors and Bapco staff for the huge amount of work and effort that had been put into the audit. Approximately 1,500 man-hours of audit were expended, and 110 interviews were conducted. The auditors were very appreciative of the open and transparent interaction that they received from all Bapco staff.
Talib added that this was a major opportunity for Bapco to be measured by fresh sets of eyes against world class performance.
Overall the audit was a great success, and the auditors complemented Bapco on several aspects of its performance and operation. They also identified gaps that need to be closed to achieve the goal of world class performance. They found that Bapco has a culture that is willing to learn and that OE is being embraced by the workforce. O
SOOL Bapco, which is a basic building block of the OE culture and covers the principles of how all members of the Bapco family are expected to conduct business, is in regular use in the organization. “When we started our OE journey two and a half years ago, our 28 OE Process Designs were below Chevron’s world class expectations, but now all but one meet those design expectations,” Talib, said. The one remaining process (Contactor HSE) is planned for re-design.
The review pointed out managers and first line supervisors were able to articulate their knowledge on the high risk activities/processes and what controls were in place to assure risks are mitigated in their respective units. This was also evidenced by documentation at the process units describing their high risks in their unit, and the process safety performance that the company has been able to achieve.
“The review also identified a number of areas where we have opportunities for improvement, where our designs meet Chevron expectations but our application is not applied as intended. The next areas for improvement in our OE journey include more effective leader verifications and validations of the work force activities, better application of Safe Work Practices in both the Bapco and Contractor workforce and improved leverage of the Incident Investigation process.”