Dec. 2, 2024

An interview with Taylor Lawson, Health and Safety Project Manager at Vattenfall

Taylor Lawson is the Project manager for the rollout of the Critical Control Management (CCM) fatality prevention program at Vattenfall.

Background: Taylor and Resilium

Back in 2021, Vattenfall approached me with an interesting question. Their incident data showed a decline in the number of lost-time injuries (LTIs) but the same decline was not observed for incidents with a more severe outcome. To address the issues, they wanted to set up a prevention program for severe and potentially fatal incidents. They asked if I was interested in applying for the position. I said that I would be on two conditions: I wanted to be able to do it in English (my native language) and I want to get the help of Resilium. They granted me one of the conditions. I am currently following my Swedish courses and getting better at it every day.

Critical Control Management (CCM)

With the help of Resilium, we outlined a project plan to implement Critical Control Management (CCM). In a nutshell, CCM is a proven methodology for preventing avoidable fatalities and serious injuries by identifying the most critical safety measures for a set of major risk activities using bowties, and then proactively measuring the control performance and improving them when needed.

Growing into Success

As one of Europe's leading green energy providers, Vattenfall operates assets in 10 northern European countries; from offshore wind turbines to hydroelectric power plants. With an organization of this magnitude, having a sound project plan with a manageable implementation is essential. Together with Resilium, we chose a gradual rollout through small scale pilots, allowing us to apply lessons learned to adjust the strategy on the go. This made us flexible and enabled us to spot opportunities to embed the project into existing processes.

A Unified Approach to Common Risks

Although each Business Area and even Business Unit has its own unique traits, a number of risks are common across sites. For example, activities such as “working at height” or “working with electrical installations” will be performed at almost all of them. Rather than having each location figure things out for themselves, we chose to develop common bowtie models using subject matter experts from each BA. Each site can then use these as a basis and make small adjustments to fit their local reality. I was happy with this approach as previous experiences showed me that allowing sites to develop the risk models on their own can easily lead to a wild growth of assessments. This can result in large numbers of bowties, each with a different style and quality which proved difficult to consolidate afterwards. The current approach saved time and ensured consistency whilst allowing for local deviations.

Innovating Solutions, Overcoming Challenges

But perhaps the most important success factor was our ability to adapt. Inevitably, when working on projects of this size, unexpected challenges will arise. A project’s success hinges on how well these challenges are met. It was reassuring to have Resilium at our side, as they were always able to innovate and come up with a suitable solution to the challenge. Their flexibility allowed us to test different approaches, keeping what worked and discarding what didn’t.

Working with Resilium for a Safer Tomorrow

All in all, we’ve really enjoyed working with Resilium. Together we were able to introduce a comprehensive critical control management program to the organization, ensuring our employees and contractors can return home safely at the end of each day.