Exacting standards rewarded
Programs carried out during the Fixed Repumping Platform (PRA-1) project garner Odebrecht the 2005 Petrobras Award for Quality, Safety, Environmental and Health in Engineering A new chapter in a success story
written by ◦ Simone Goldberg photos by ◦ Almir Bindilatti

It was a fine-tooth-comb process from the very start. The requirements for competing for the 2005 Petrobras Award for Quality, Safety, Environmental Responsibility and Health (QSMS) in Engineering for the state oil company’s contractors were so strict that just 13 of the 240 service providers working on 430 Petrobras contracts entered and 11 qualified for the award’s three categories: Industrial Construction, Offshore Unit Construction and Pipeline Construction. And in October 2005, Construtora Norberto Odebrecht - CNO was selected from among six companies in the Offshore Unit Construction category to win the prize for its work on the Fixed Repumping Platform (PRA-1) project, which is being carried out as a joint venture with Ultratec in São Roque do Paraguaçu, Bahia.

The award is an added stimulus for contractors to improve their health, environmental responsibility, workplace safety and quality management procedures. “Recognizing and encouraging merit in our suppliers in these areas is very important,” says Sandoval Dias Aragão, Petrobras’s General Manager for Engineering Management Support.

Winning the Petrobras QSMS Award is an important sign of the client’s recognition. Another advantage for the winners is more market visibility. In CNO’s case, the company is doubly noteworthy because it has won the award in two different categories: Industrial Construction in 2002 and 2003 and now Offshore Units Construction in 2005. “This attests to the company’s versatility,” says Aragão. He also observes that CNO’s successful track record has improved the company’s score and position in Petrobras’s rankings and increased its chances of being invited to bid for future contracts.

Beyond legal requirements

Of all the work that qualified CNO to win the award in 2005, Aragão underscores the company’s determination to fulfill all legal standards and requirements regarding safety, the environment and health, as well as some specific items. These include concern for workers’ quality of life that goes far beyond Brazil’s legal requirements. This can be seen in the quality of the food served in the climate-controlled cafeterias, and the workers’ “village,” which includes a recreational area equipped with a movie theater, a multipurpose playing court and a library. There is also an Internet room, which is part of a program aimed at closing the digital divide. A fully equipped health-care facility including an infirmary, doctors on call around the clock, fixed and mobile ICUs, and a preventive approach to occupational health were also factors that helped CNO win the award.

“When a project is going well in terms of safety, environmental preservation and health, its quality and productivity are assured. Consequently, it will have a greater chance of achieving better results in terms of schedules and budgets,” observes Aragão. “Odebrecht has surpassed itself by meeting and even exceeding contractual requirements in the areas of Quality, Health, Safety and Environmental Responsibility,” says the Petrobras executive.

The PRA-1 project is a case in point. “This award resulted from what for us is standard practice on projects and an inherent part of each individual’s job: the dissemination of our culture of quality, safety, environmental and health management,” underscores PRA-1 Contract Director Fernando Barbosa. “These concepts have been deeply instilled in the people working on our projects. We demonstrated this back in 1986, when Odebrecht won the award for the first time, and it has continued to be the keynote for winning awards ever since.” He believes that the 2005 Petrobras award is significant in many ways: it is the culmination of a combination of efforts and serves as an added motivation and stimulus for everyone involved. The award is also a calling card and marketing tool in dealings with other oil industry clients in Brazil and worldwide, who are increasingly concerned with ensuring excellent quality, safety, environmental responsibility and health care on their projects.

“This is the fourth time we’ve won in the quality category, which is a reflection of work done with commitment and responsibility,” says the CNO officer Responsible for Functional Support for Quality, Antônio Carlos Pereira. Good practices are clearly evident at the São Roque do Paraguaçu yard: a clean construction site, signaling and signposting, selective trash collection, workers undergoing training and wearing their individual protection equipment, and an infirmary that is always ready to handle any medical emergency.

Developments in health

By the end of the first week in November 2005, the project had spent 457 consecutive days without any lost-time accidents. The joint-venture contractor began setting up the construction yard in July 2004 and now has nearly 1,000 workers on the job. The excellent results being achieved there are the result of practices that CNO holds sacred. A Daily Work Training program helps instill the concepts of quality, safety, environmental protection and health before anyone gets down to his or her tasks that day.

The project also offers profit and results sharing and an SOC (Safety, Organization and Cleanliness) Program, which divides company members into groups according to their activities and sets target goals. To firmly establish the program’s concepts in people’s minds, team members undergo individual evaluations by their immediate leaders.

“The Health, Safety and Environment area represents 25% of the project’s productivity, and sharing profits and results is a tool that helps motivate people to engage in good HSE practices,” observes Cláudio César Souza Scarpa, the officer Responsible for Health, Safety and the Environment. HSE and quality measures are devised during the planning stage for each project, and their strong points are team unity, training and a focus on preventive measures.

Communication and technology

Like profit sharing, the materials used to share information and ensure communication are important features that set the PRA-1 project apart. Communication tools like pocket manuals on HSE questions and a suggestion program that enables workers to express their ideas, as well as informative posters and bulletins, are all important parts of the educational process.

Another factor that enabled the company to win the Petrobras Award was the application of technology to improve workers’ quality of life and ensure optimum performance during the production process. For example, special equipment measures noise levels in specific areas of the construction yard. “We use cutting-edge technology applied to construction and installation in the areas of welding, transport, freight handling and detailed engineering,” says José Luis Coutinho de Faria, the officer Responsible for Production on PRA-1. Since the platform’s metal structure weighs a total of 10,000 tonnes (metric tons), and is 100% welded, it is easy to see how important state-of-the-art welding methods must be to this project, since they save time and materials while improving quality.

A transportation system based on self-propelled trailers – a solution devised for the PRA-1 project – speeds up construction of the platform by facilitating the removal of modules from workshops and transporting them to the sub-assembly area. The modules are built in specially adapted sheds to provide greater comfort and protection for the workers by keeping them out of the rain and hot tropical sun. Computerized cargo transportation equipment minimizes manual procedures and their inherent risks.

CNO has assigned a quality control team to the supplier’s factory to ensure the quality of the metal parts of the platform structure. “That way we avoid delays and reworking due to defects, which saves time and money,” observes Cláudio Casares, the officer Responsible for Quality. Controlling quality at the source is nothing new, but this is the first time CNO has inspected 100% of the materials instead of sampling them.

Using IT intelligently

Information technology is another powerful ally that ensures good performance at São Roque do Paraguaçu. The management system developed for the PRA-1 project covers all knowledge areas and provides Petrobras the data it requires for the project on time and online. The introduction of digital signatures for quality records has speeded up the flow of data and ensured its accuracy, while cutting down on red tape and eliminating piles of paper documents. “This high level of computerization and innovation was definitely a factor that set us apart and helped us win the award,” says Casares.

The progressive improvement of CNO’s Health, Safety and Environment policies is based on the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology (TEO), the bedrock of Odebrecht’s entrepreneurial culture. Valuing and caring for people and respecting the environment are not only basic tenets of this philosophy, but necessary to stand out in the construction market, where these factors mean competitiveness. As a result, according to Antônio Gaspar, the CNO officer Responsible for Workplace Safety Support, winning the Petrobras Award is extremely important. “It bolsters our image in the eyes of one of our main clients, Petrobras, and is a badge of distinction for us in the engineering services sector.”

The implementation of CNO’s winning Health, Worker Safety and Environmental Management program was evaluated under the standards of certifications the company already holds, such as ISO 14001 for Environmental Management and OHSAS (Occupational, Health and Safety Assessment Series) 18001. CNO is also certified under the ISO 9001 Quality Management standard.

Odebrecht and the Petrobras Award