Repetition Repetition Repetition Repetition
by Bernard McGrath, Inspection Validation Centre

I may have written something similar previously. I'm not sure. I probably have. I could check. But why bother? No one else seems to worry about repeating themselves. Why should I? Repetition can be good. I have heard it said that to be able to learn a new movement in sport, you need to repeat it 180 times before it can be done automatically, without thinking. Maybe that is it. Perhaps there is a magic number of times that you can say something, no matter how incorrect and, if no one pulls you up, then you actually start to believe it. Or maybe if you hear something said the same number of times you will be persuaded to believe it.
 
So I no longer hold the idea that some people deliberately do wrong. I now believe that they just have serious errors of judgement. I am also starting to believe that maybe people really are considered to be the most important asset. However, I am unable, no matter how many times I hear it, to believe that "safety is our number one priority". It is so obviously wrong. Yet, company spokesmen glibly make this announcement to placate us and get us to put our faith in their actions.

I am sure I have written about it before, but I will keep repeating myself as long as the statement keeps being repeated. A few weeks ago, the volcanic ash grounded aircraft in the UK. At first, everyone was accepting of this because it was a safety issue. But the airlines soon became impatient with the loss of money and pushed for the rules about the presence of ash to be relaxed. Now, if safety really was the number one priority, they would have accepted the rules as they were because they were obviously safe.

For private companies, the number one priority is making money. They have to take safety seriously because a developed society demands it and, if they don't, then they will not achieve their number one priority. Likewise, an individual's priority is to have the quality of life they desire. Whilst personal safety obviously plays a part, it is balanced against the benefits that can be gained by not being too safe. What everyone is doing, companies and individuals, is balancing risks and benefits. Only, we are not very good at doing this. And the scary thing is that the people/companies who decide on the risk are often not the people who come off worst if the risk is realised. We have two, high profile, global examples in the recession and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

What is more, the decisions regarding risk are often kept hidden from an unsuspecting public. Risk is based on probabilities, which are often determined by experts. Experts can only make judgements on what they know. When they know that they don't know, then uncertainty gets built into the risk. But then we have the unknown unknowns, or ignorance.

The NDT profession suffers from both the lack of transparency of information regarding risk decisions and from the unknown unknowns. NDT is a valuable tool in mitigating risk and reducing the probability of plant failure. However, when NDT detects a defect, the information is considered commercially sensitive and kept under wraps. The opportunity to publically promote the success of NDT and to share the technical knowledge within the profession is squashed. From an unknown unknown point of view, the consequences of not detecting the defect are avoided and so no one knows just how valuable the NDT has been. All that the company remembers is the cost and the inconvenience caused by what was found.

So it should be an aim of everyone in the profession to educate people about risk in order to promote NDT. We should be repetitive in pointing out that safety is a compromise but that NDT can make sure it is not compromised too much. We should be repetitive in…

Please note that the views expressed in this column are the author's own personal ramblings for the purpose of encouraging discussion within the NDT Newspaper. They do not represent the views of the IVC, Serco Assurance or the HSE who funded the PANI projects.

Letters can be mailed to The Editor, NDT News, Newton Building, St George's Avenue, Northampton NN2 6JB. Fax: 01604 89 3861; Email: ndtnews@bindt.org or email Bernard McGrath direct at Bernard.McGrath@sercoassurance.com