Review: Sandia Work Planning and Control Still Needs Work

Sandia National Laboratories still has to make progress in improving safety controls, according to a targeted review of the lab’s work planning and control by the Department of Energy’s Office of Enterprise Assessments. The review found that while Sandia is making progress in revamping its work planning and control in the wake of several workplace accidents, Sandia’s corporate processes don’t provide clear guidance in some important areas. Specifically, the review said that Sandia’s guidelines for failure mode analysis and safety case initiative requirements allowed for lab divisions to come up with their own processes and procedures and “did not provide for sufficient corporate-level review and assessment, resulting in significant variability in approach and quality across SNL organizations.”

 

In a statement, Sandia spokesman Jim Danneskiold said the lab welcomed the report’s conclusions that changes at the lab were “appropriately targeted” and “contributing to safer operations.” Danneskiold added: “Sandia has instituted a rigorous process to improve performance assessments including specific criteria to evaluate Work Planning and Controls. Now that all activities have been reviewed and safety cases completed, the divisions are taking the next step to initiate independent reviews to ensure quality. In addition, training and tools appropriate for hazard assessment to include failure modes analysis have been expanded.”