3244 Managing fatigue using a fatigue risk management plan (FRMP)

Overview:

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Employee fatigue presents risks to health, safety and productivity. In organisations working with major accident hazards (MAHs), the risk that fatigue poses can be particularly severe, as was shown by the 2005 Texas City refinery explosion and the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. 

In 2006, EI published Improving alertness through effective fatigue management, a well received and used document describing fatigue management strategies.  However, since then industry good practice has moved away from fatigue management strategies to fatigue risk management plans (FRMPs), whereby fatigue should be managed as part of the safety management system (SMS), in the same way other aspects of health, safety, environment and productivity are managed.

Newly published EI Managing fatigue using a fatigue risk management plan (FRPM) supersedes Improving alertness through effective fatigue management.  It recommends a more comprehensive approach to managing fatigue in a risk-based and systematic manner, and for fostering shared responsibility between an organisation and its employees.

The publication is divided into two parts. Part 1 introduces the causes of fatigue and the FRMP concept.  Part 2 provides guidance on the design and implementation of the FRMP.  In whole, this publication:

• Provides a source of reference for site-level managers directly responsible for managing fatigue.
• Defines and describes the elements of an FRMP that complies with industry good practice.
• Provides managers with practical step-by-step guidance on how to build, implement and maintain an FRMP.

This publication is relevant for all major hazard industries, including onshore and offshore operations. Organisations in the early stages of implementing an FRMP will find this publication particularly useful, whilst those with an FRMP in place should also benefit as a means to compare their existing FRMP against good practice