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Making the Case for Quality

An energy company was dismayed to learn that its fire-safety clothing wasnt adequate for workers dealing with potentially deadly gas-line fires.

The company used quality tools and methods to quantify the dangers employees faced and the best ways to protect them.

The results: A dramatically safer work environment.

At a Glance . . .

Quality Strategies Help Eliminate Likelihood of

Serious and Deadly Injuries

It was a stunning discovery: When an energy company sent its fire-retardant clothing to a lab for test-ing, the tests showed that workers wearing the clothing during a particularly dangerous type of gas-line fire were likely to suffer serious, possibly fatal, burns.

The company, Xcel Energy, had issued employees the same fire-retardant clothing for decades, believ-ing it to be the best available. When the lab tests showed that the clothing was inadequate, Xcel turned to quality-focused problem-solving tools and processes to find better ways to protect its employees. The results: A dramatically safer work environment.

Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Xcel is well-known for its emphasis on safety in all work environments, including the extreme danger workers can face during a blowing gas fire. This type of fire occurs when gas streaming out of a damaged line suddenly ignites, creating a raging inferno that can only be extinguished by capping or shutting down the line. Thankfully, blowing gas incidents seldom ignite into actual fires. But blowing gas is a common hazard associated with working on gas pipelines: Even a highly responsible company such as Xcel experiences more than 3,000 blowing gas incidents each year, any of which is merely a spark away from potentially injuring or killing workers.

In response to the lab tests, Xcel moved quickly to ensure its workers the highest possible level of on-the-job safety. The nine-member team it formed to address the fire-retardant (FR) clothing problem subsequently won respect and recognition for its efforts throughout all branches of the energy field. Most important, team members succeeded in equipping the companys gas-line workers with clothing that provides 100 percent survivability and 0 percent body burn during the time it would normally take to escape a blowing gas fire.

The teams efforts have led to the establishment of improved industry practices to ensure worker safety, and team members continue to share their findings with other utilities and industry organizations around the nation.

More Than 5 Million Customers

Xcel Energy is a leading electricity and natural gas energy company, with more than 9,700 employ-ees (including its subsidiaries) and annual revenues of $10 billion. With regulated operations in eight Western and Midwestern states, the company serves 3.3 million electricity customers and 1.8 million

by Jeanne Chircop

natural gas customers. The company owns more than 33,000 miles of natural gas pipelines, and its 71 power plants generate more than 15,300 megawatts of electric power.

The companys power plants include coal, natural gas, nuclear, hydroelectric, oil, and refuse-derived fuel (RDF) facilities. It also serves 46,500 customers in Colorado, Minnesota, and New Mexico with its nationally top-ranked Windsource service, which provides electricity generated from wind power.

Focusing on Fire-Retardant Clothing

Xcels commitment to providing its employees with better FR clothing began at a 2003 Midwest Energy Association conference. While attending, company personnel witnessed a burn-simulation test conducted by representatives from a certified testing lab in Richmond, Virginia, run by DuPont. The simulator uses a sensor-equipped mannequin to generate profiles of body injuries for different types of clothing. Computers then

chart survivability based on data collected during the simulation. Survival rates are broken down into categories based on the age of the clothing-wearer.

The demonstration was eye-opening for the Xcel attendees. They learned that surviving a blow-ing gas fire is largely determined by the dura-tion of fire exposure, and that duration, in turn, is largely deter-mined by the physical condition of the clothing wearer, which correlates strongly with employee age. Simply put, older workers are not able to climb out of a trench and escape a blowing gas fire as quickly.

With a median age of 48 among their companys gas journey-men, the Xcel employees recognized that nearly half their colleagues fell into the highest-risk category: workers over age 50. Statistically, half of those workersor approximately a quarter of all Xcel gas-line workerswould not survive a blowing gas fire. The employees quickly understood that a key to effectively protecting employees was ensuring their FR clothing would keep them safe long enough to climb out of a trench and escape a fire.

Seeking more information after the conference, the Xcel person-nel discovered, to their surprise, that neither regulatory agencies

nor industry trade organizations had established specific standards for FR clothing. This caused the employees serious concern about what determines the appropriate level of FR cloth-ing, and whether their company-issued FR suits provided the right amount of protection.

The employees approached upper management and requested the opportunity to perform an FR clothing study and report their find-ings and/or recommendations. The request was approved, and a multi-jurisdictional team was created with representatives from three of the companys key gas operations: Denver, Colorado; St. Paul, Minnesota; and White Bear Lake, Minnesota.

The team started with three key advantages. All members had:

Training in quality tools and techniques. Previous team experience. Significant years of energy industry experience.

These attributes provided them with a sturdy base for methodi-cal study and problem resolution. They approached their task through steps identified as an effective quality process:

Determining project scope Identifying stakeholders Linking the project with larger organizational goals Analyzing the current situation Identifying possible root causes Compiling and analyzing data Selecting and validating final root cause(s) Developing possible solution(s) Compiling and analyzing data again Selecting the final solution(s) Validating the solution(s) Implementing the solution(s) Measuring success

Project Scope

Relying on their knowledge of fire hazards inherent in the energy field, team members understood that FR clothing provided to employees working on electrical equipment might not protect a gas employee in a blowing gas fire. A blowing gas fire is an engulfing and continuously fueled fire that requires protection different from that designed for a momentary electrical flash/arc.

The team also considered frequency and severity of incidents. For blowing gas fires, data pointed to:

High Frequency

580 gas journeymen were exposed to uncontrolled blowing gas during their routine responsibilities (any of which held the potential to ignite into fire).

More than 3,000 blowing gas incidents were taking place each year (3,303 in 2004; 3,054 in 2005).

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Team Member Title; Xcel Location; Years of Experience

Mark Pinnegar Gas journeyman; Denver; 5

Merlin Tomcyzk Safety consultant; Denver; 6

Bob Macias Manager, Gas Emergency; Denver; 31

Earl Koehn Trouble Truck foreman; Denver; 3

Joe Vitale Gas journeyman; St. Paul; 10

Doug Bossard Crew leader; St. Paul; 31

Julie West Manager, Gas Construction; Denver; 6

Paul Stigall Lead welder; Denver; 0

Tom Pilla Safety consultant; White Bear Lake; 35

Gas Fire-Retardant Clothing Team

High Severity

Two workers had suffered serious burn injuries in 2005. The minimum cost of treatment at a burn unit (University of

Colorado Burn Center) is $3,500/day plus actual treatment costs.

Workers compensation averages $24,188 and 180+ restricted workdays; one actual 1995 case ran as high as $120,000 and one industry example totaled $230,000.

The risk assessment thus showed a combination of high fre-quency with high severity, supporting the teams decision to focus on FR clothing for uncontrolled blowing gas situations.

Identifying Stakeholders

The team quickly identified three key internal stakeholder groups:

Employees and their families The companys safety department Corporate management

External stakeholders include fire departments, whose person-nel provide support during uncontrolled blowing gas situations, as well as other constituencies comprising the larger gas industry: other gas utilities and their employees, gas industry organizations, and even the FR clothing manufacturers who serve utilities. (Overall, the gas industry currently lacks specific regulatory or gas industry standards for gas FR clothing.)

Alignment With Company Goals

Employee safety is the number-one priority at Xcel Energy. Accidents are bad news for any company, but when even the slightest error could mean permanent disability or death for an employee, safety is a core value. Ensuring employee safety obviously entails providing effective personal-protection equip-ment, including FR clothing, to those who work directly with potential hazards.

Team members identified several ways in which their study matched corporate priorities:

Improving operations. Goals for both the team and company focused on improving the likelihood of employees safely returning home to their families, reducing injury severity, and reducing the companys OSHA incident rate. (The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has established an industrywide measurement system for on-the-job accidents and injuries that is used nationally.)

Enhancing credibility with employees. Xcel recognized that employees were dissatisfied with the existing orange gas FR suit versus the FR clothing provided to electric employees. To begin with, the orange suits looked too much like the jumpsuits worn by inmates of the local county jail.

Meeting earnings targets. Shared goals included reducing lost-time incidents, restricted workdays, reduced productivity, and workers compensation costs.

Identifying Root Causes

The team used a cadre of quality methods and tools to identify possible root causes:

Assumption ArticulationWhat are current assumptions? For more than 20 years, Xcel Energys FR suits for gas employees had been made of FR cotton and the thermal-protection fabric Nomex. The team hoped to find out whether the existing suits still represented industry best practice. They also recognized the need to determine how much time constitutes a realistic exposure time: that is, how long does it really take to escape a blowing gas fire?

BrainstormingUsed to identify potential requirements The group brainstormed to formulate best-guess answers to three questions: How long does it really take to get out of a ditch? What clothing combinations are employees currently wearing? Are employees aware of the hazard?

Industry DataGathering benchmarking data from the Midwest Energy Association (MEA) and the American Gas Association (AGA)

The team sought body-burn and survivability data from two leading industry associations, and also from DuPonts testing facility.

BenchmarkingWhat are other natural gas utilities doing? The team discovered a wide range of practices among gas companies. Some did not provide their employees with any personal protective equipment; some, including Xcel, provided a single-layer coverall; some relied on clothing-manufacturer recommendations. A few companies were just beginning to collect test data.

Employee FeedbackWhats important to you? The team discovered that gas employees felt they werent being treated equitably when it came to company-supplied FR clothing. They specifically didnt like the orange color of the gas FR suits because of their similarity with jail-inmate coveralls. Employees also expressed specific interest in the comfort of the clothing, including fabric weight.

SimulationsSimulate an actual blowing gas situation in the field Team members went out to the field to determine a realistic exposure time by actually measuring the amount of time it takes employees to climb out of a hole under simulated blowing-gas conditions.

Combining their findings, team members discovered that a rea-sonable estimate for exposure time was eight seconds. Thus they concluded that they wanted to identify FR clothing that would maximize survivability and minimize the amount of body burn a worker would suffer during an eight-second exposure. To satisfy employees, they needed the greatest protection in the lightest

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suit possible for comfortand it couldnt be orange. To satisfy corporate accounting, the suits had to be durable enough to resist wear and tear, thus minimizing the need for replacement.

Validating Final Root Cause

The FR clothing team next contacted DuPonts certified testing lab to perform a standardized test (ASTM1930) on various clothing combinations that the team identified as clothing routinely worn by Xcel gas employees. The DuPont laboratory burn simulator is used to measure the protective performance of a variety of garments and clothing systems under realistic flash-fire conditions.

The results were staggering. Simulator analysis revealed that Xcel gas journeymen would experience burn injuries to more than 54 percent of their bodies during an eight-second exposure wearing their existing FR clothing. Survival rates for employees age 48 and 49 would be less than 70 percent, and for those 50 and older the survival rate dropped to less than 50 percent.

Selecting Better Protection

Team members combined several methods and resources to develop a solution to their need to find FR clothing that provided better protection for their employees:

Internet searches Trade organizations Other gas utilities Clothing manufacturers representatives Data analysis and brainstorming

The team began by conducting a general Internet search to iden-tify a pool of potential FR clothing suppliers/manufacturers. Additional companies were added based on information obtained through trade organizations and other gas utilities. Team mem-bers also spoke with representatives of several manufacturers to get more information on specific products. Ultimately, the team

narrowed down the field of potential suppliers to four, and then identified eight clothing options from which to choose. Selections were based on data analysis and brainstorming results.

To move toward a final solution, the team used a solution selec-tion matrix. They selected this tool for three reasons:

1. The solution selection matrix is the preferred methodol-ogy taught as part of Xcels Management System Six-Step Problem-Solving process.

2. It provides a systematic approach that allows for the best pos-sible solutions to surface. It also establishes priorities through the use of specific criteria.

3. The matrix approach is structured enough to provide useful information regarding practical implementation, while flexible enough to allow for innovation.

Next, the team created a data table to perform analytical com-parisons of the products they had identified. Categories focused on critical criteria such as exposure time, percentage of burn, survival rate, comfort, durability, and cost. The table format enabled team members to identify their top three choices, and ultimately their top selection.

The team had made an informed decision, but the solution still required validation. Team members again returned to testing/experimentation, a key component of the quality process offi-cially known as Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V). They subjected the new suit to the same standardized testing the old suit had undergone, this time at a certified testing lab at North Carolina State Universitys College of Textiles, and then compared results with those from the previous test of their existing cloth-ing. The results were conclusive: Switching to the new suit would result in a drop in injury from 54 percent to virtually 0 percentthe new suit was the clear winner. The new suit also promised a survival rate of 100 percent for workers aged 48-49 and 99 percent for those aged 50-59again, a clear winner. Finally, in terms of heat transferwhich occurs after the fire has already been

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Video 1The Old Suit Video 2The New Suit

Click on images to watch videos of the blowing gas fire simulations.

extinguishedthe new suit stayed constant at nearly 0 for a full minute, while the old suit allowed heat to escalate to beyond the third-degree burn mark in about 12 seconds. This means that a worker wearing the new suit would have more time to get out of a scorched suit without getting burned by the suit itself.

Implementing Change

The team next brainstormed to identify expected tangible and intangible benefits of replacing the companys existing clothing with the recommended new clothing. Besides the obvious ben-efits associated with protecting their employees more effectively, the team expected tangible benefits to include reducing the number of OSHA-recordable incidents, reducing workers com-pensation costs and costs associated with FR suit replacement. Another expected intangible benefit: The company would now have a better understanding of what determines the appropriate level of FR clothing.

Team members also revisited data gathered at the beginning of the project to identify areas of possible stakeholder resistance to the proposed solution. Next, they brainstormed ways of ensur-ing stakeholder buy-in and managing change. They decided to provide data-supported facts to all parties and also to engage corporate communications staff to develop an educational video and training materials. They estimated the only significant cost would be $3,500 for production of the video.

As part of the process, they also worked with top management to modify the companys blowing gas policies and guidelines, and planned ongoing blowing gas training to ensure employ-ees continue to work within Xcel Energys new guidelines. As such, the project exceeded its original goal of simply find-ing better FR clothing and contributed the broader benefit of improved general safety.

Once new suits were issued to all employees at risk of encoun-tering a blowing gas fire, Xcel worked to ensure employees

actually wore the suits by employing regular field crew observa-tions. Xcel also shared this information with fire departments in parts of the companys service territory, so that firefighters would have a better understanding of gas fires and how Xcel protects its employees. These local fire departments, for exam-ple, now work with the company to ensure Xcel employees are wearing their FR suits before they enter a hazard zone.

A Solution That Works

Employee feedback has indicated great satisfaction relating to the new FR clothing. Employees appreciate what the safety team has done for them. They know that the team, the larger safety organization, and management care about their safetyand even about their preferences, because the new suits are tan rather than orange. After viewing the education and training video, employ-ees also believe they now have the right equipment for their jobs. They also wear the suits without management prodding, because they truly understand the risks of not wearing them.

In addition to employee satisfaction, other realized tangible benefits are:

New FR clothing will reduce OSHA recordable incidents relating to a blowing gas fire in the event of ignition, through: Reduction in injury severity (percentage body burn). Reduction in workers compensation costs.

Reduced costs associated with FR suit replacementthe new suits are more durable because they are made with Kevlar.

Apprentices will learn safe work practices, including the importance of proper personal protective equipment.

Established a corporate Blowing Gas standard for FR clothing. Favorable union acknowledgment, resulting in an improved

relationship

A key intangible benefit thats been realized is that Xcel is leading an effort to establish an Industry Safety Best Practices for FR clothing. Others include:

Industry collaborationWorking collaboratively on employee safety issues with two other gas utilities and two leading trade organizations.

Better partnershipsIncreased cooperation with local fire departments in three key Xcel markets.

More potential clothing optionsClothing manufacturers have learned from the project and are developing new and better FR clothing offerings; DuPont is using Xcel Energys validated exposure time in its testing program.

The Xcel Energy team has shared news of these accom-plishments with employees through articles in the company newsletter. Team members spread the word to other utilities through conferences and meetings sponsored by trade organiza-tions such as the Midwest Energy Association and the American Gas Association. Team members have also provided a demon-stration to service territory fire departments.

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Video 3Heat Transfer

Click on the image to watch the heat-transfer video.

Members of the Xcel Energy Gas Fire-Retardant Clothing Team were honored last spring as a Circle of Xcellence team at the companys annual premier recognition event, Xcellence Expo.

For More Information

To learn more about Xcel Energy, visit http://www.xcelenergy.com.

To learn more about Xcel Energys Gas Fire-Retardant Clothing Team, contact team co-leaders Paul Stigall at Paul.L.Stigall@xcelenergy.com (303-425-3805) or Julie West at Julia.West@xcelenergy.com (303-628-2833).

To learn more about quality methodologies used by Xcel Energy, contact David Briggs at David.Briggs@xcelenergy.com.

To learn more about quality tools and techniques such as the solution selection matrix or identifying tangible and intangible benefits, visit http://www.asq.org.

Contributing to This Article

Information for this article was provided by David Briggs, a business process and systems analyst and a certified manage-ment system senior quality coach at Xcel Energy. Briggs is an ASQ Six Sigma Black Belt and an ASQ Certified Quality Improvement Associate.

About the Author

Jeanne Chircop holds a masters degree in journalism from American University and resides in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area.

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