Investigating the maturity of incident investigations of the ghanaian mining industry and its effect on safety performance

Abstract

Effective incident investigations have been recognised as a vital means of improving safety.Nevertheless, there has been little attempt to link incident investigations to actual safety performance.In this study, a framework for assessing the maturity of incident investigations and identifyingareas for improvements is described. The framework was developed based on a literature reviewand interviews with 41 investigators across five large-scale Ghanaian gold mines. The frameworkconsists of 20 elements across four dimensions and five maturity levels. The dimensions (investigatorcompetencies, system of investigation, stages of investigation and post-investigation findings)consider the most relevant aspects of practical investigation and for each dimension, elementsthat are more specific were defined across five maturity levels. Mapping the interview data collectedfrom five mines into a maturity framework highlighted that the mines occupied different positionson the framework. Some occupied the advanced levels consistently and others consistently occupiedthe lower levels. Applying the interview data to the framework also identified priority areas forimprovement. Finally, the maturity scores derived from mapping interview data onto the frameworkwere correlated with the incidence rates of the mines to determine if any relationship existed betweenthe two variables. The low incidence rate mines had higher maturity scores and the high incidencerate mines had lower maturity scores. It was found that the method was effective in practice, givingclear indications of areas where improvements are needed.