Communication and Coordination Failures in the Process Industries

Abstract

Previous research shows that effective team communication and coordination is required for managing normal and abnormal situations (Laberge & Goknur, 2006). The purpose of this project is to quantify common communication and coordination failures and root causes of abnormal situations in the process industries. Fourteen incident reports were analyzed using the TapRoot® root cause analysis methodology. The top five communication and coordination failures were failures of: planning or preparatory activities (31%), individual and team execution (14%), work direction and supervision (13%), communication between functional groups (12%), and activity assessment (10%). The study of root causes showed that ineffective standards, policies, and administrative controls (SPAC); poor crew teamwork; a lack of communication; and no supervision were common reasons for failures.