The Observer, September 2003

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Alyeska Viewpoint: At Alyeska, "quiet competence" is emerging goal for company workplace

By Greg Jones
Senior Vice President
Operations and Maintenance
Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.

In the ongoing conversation between Alyeska and the citizens’ council about Alyeska’s performance and the council’s expectations for that performance, we each often single out particular projects, events or significant issues. In this Observer, I would like to take a moment to share information about some of the less visible but no less important aspects of our work by which we assess ourselves – aspects of our work that shape our emerging vision of “quiet competence.”

In any business -- in our case, the transportation of oil -- if one hopes to be successful it helps to define the criteria for success. At Alyeska, we determine success (or its opposite) with reference to “performance metrics” – observable, measurable indicators that cover the important aspects of our operations. Meeting our performance metrics is achieved through day-to-day effort. A goal of “no one gets hurt,” for example, is simply a slogan unless no one gets hurt today, and tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, and so on. The path to achieving such a goal or to meeting any performance metric can appear “routine.” And that is a challenge for everyone in our workforce: how to make the performance that both Alaskans and our owners expect “routine.”

Here at Alyeska’s Valdez operations, we have a good story to tell.

On July 23, our Ship Escort/Response Vessel System, or SERVS, reached a milestone when the 9,000th tanker since establishment of SERVS in 1989 was escorted safely through Prince William Sound. We recognize that as an achievement, and a testament to the hard work of the men and women of SERVS and our contractors, even as together we acknowledge that we’re only as good as our last escort.

In May and June, the State Fire Marshal’s office conducted an inspection of over 300 different Alyeska facilities, including those at the terminal. In the letter that accompanied his report, the fire marshal’s office commented that it was “evident that Alyeska management and employees have been working on the company’s fire prevention program.” His letter recognized this joint effort as “outstanding” and, more importantly, one that “has made Alyeska a safer place to work.” While there is still room for improvement, this progress reflects teamwork, shared purpose, and day-to-day attention to detail.

Alyeska’s Valdez operations are steadily improving performance against challenging metrics for spills. Thus far this year, there have been eleven spills at the terminal or SERVS, for a total of 20 gallons, 10 gallons of which involved crude oil (a spill to land from a leaking valve seal). During this same period over 220 million barrels (or over 9.3 billion gallons) of crude oil were shipped through the terminal. We’re making substantial progress in the important safety arena as well. There have been three recordable injuries year-to-date in Valdez, and, company-wide, we have a recordable rate that is a third of that from last year, and currently ranks among the best in the Alaskan oil and gas industry. The goal of “no one gets hurt” still remains to be met, but the improvement over preceding years is noteworthy. One group, the Oil Movements and Storage team, is setting the pace, by working safely without a single recordable injury over the past three years. These achievements have taken place while the terminal has moved one million barrels of oil a day, with 100 percent reliability.

Henry Thoreau once wrote that “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” He could have been describing our employees, whose-day-to day effort begins with tailgate safety meetings and incorporates daily pursuit of efficiency, cost savings, application of lessons learned, and a renewed emphasis on sharing information across organizational lines. We ask everyone for their input, and ask ourselves, what is the right thing to do? And we are getting better results. Our maintenance team has improved their “tool time” – the time spent on the job as a proportion of total hours worked. Our terminal staff have found ways to optimize vehicle use, and have been able to reduce the size of Alyeska’s vehicle fleet. The cafeteria in our new office building has become a place where technicians in coveralls can grab lunch with managers, where suggestions are shared and questions asked and answered. Our achievement of our performance metrics so far this year has been the result of every employee’s effort.

We’ve come up with a term for this effort. We call it “quiet competence.” This day-to-day effort that doesn’t make the news is a key component in assuring that we meet our safety, compliance, environmental and operational objectives. But then, at Alyeska, we would rather be competent than newsworthy.