Incident Management System for a Global Company

Abstract

The global implementation of an incident management and action tracking system is no easy task. There is a multitude of good intentions and lots of moving parts. Although everyone is trying to do the right thing from initial rollout, there are lessons learned along the way that will, in the end, solidify your already existing incident management system. A global, mid-size company of about 3,200 employees learned and applied these lessons during a three-phase incident management system rollout to three different geographical areas: the Americas, Asia and Europe. The challenges faced were not only geographical and cultural; they were also a result of the different legacy safety philosophies that come with joint ventures and new partnerships in the ever changing chemical industry. This paper discusses the initial approach all the way through to the end. Going back to basics: defining what an incident is, what types of incidents would be tracked, and what the requirements for an investigation were going to be. This paired with the lessons that were learned after each phased rollout resulted in the successful implementation of a global incident management procedure and software system; the lessons being continuously learned would make for an even more successful rollout in the future.