| name | Safety observation logging |
| description | Capture a near miss or unsafe condition so it produces an action, not a statistic. |
| category | operations |
Logging a safety observation
Near misses are the cheapest safety data there is, and they are only reported if
reporting is easy and blameless.
Capture
What was observed · exactly where · when · what could have happened, at worst ·
what made it possible — condition, equipment, procedure or pressure · what was
done immediately.
Blameless, always
Describe the condition, not the person. "Pallet stacked above the marked line in
aisle 4" produces a fix; "operator stacked it wrong" produces silence next time.
Rate by potential, not by outcome
A near miss that could have been a fatality is a serious event even though
nobody was hurt. Rating by what actually happened is how organisations learn
nothing until somebody is injured.
Every observation gets an owner and a date
An observation without an action closes the loop for the logger and opens
nothing. If no action is warranted, record why — that is also an answer.
Never
Name individuals, close an observation without an action or a reason, or
downgrade because it happened before without consequence.
