Development of a Safety Culture Assessment Methodology for B&W Pantex Project #TT10-BWXT

1. Development of a Safety Culture Assessment Methodology for B&W Pantex Project #TT10-BWXT Project Team Principal Investigator Jennifer Farris, Ph.D. Co-Principal Investigator Timothy Matis, Ph.D. Patrick Patterson, Ph.D Graduate Assistants Aaron Phillips Undergraduate Assistants Matthew Ballan, Megan Heinz Project Motivation • Pantex Plant • Government owned and contractor operated manufacturing facility for the U.S. Department of Energy • America’s only nuclear weapons assembly /disassembly facility • Goal is to Operate as a High Reliability Organization • Faces high intrinsic hazards yet performs successfully • Lack of Data on Current Safety-Related Strengths and Weaknesses in Production Project Objectives • Develop and Implement a Safety Culture Assessment Methodology for the Pantex Plant • Identify Current Safety-Related Weaknesses in Production System and Design Action Plans for Improvement Project Activities • Instrument Design • Survey Administration • Data Analysis • Validation of Results and Design of Action Plans for Improvement • Full Scale Implementation of Assessment Method in Plant Research Methodology Survey Administration • Group-Based Instrument Design • Observation of Production System • Attribute Selection (Literature and Observation) • Item Development • Physical Layout and Response Options • Initial Pilot Test Data Analysis • Data Screening • Instrument Validation • Evaluation of Responses to Different Attributes (Group Differences, Strengths and Weaknesses) • Evaluating Relationships between Attributes Validation of Results and Design of Action Plans for Improvement • Production System Observation • Focus Groups • Dynamic Intervention Design • Final Assessment Approach for Roll-out to Larger Organization