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Due to common misconceptions, management may
believe they must sacrifice mission objectives for
regulatory compliance, or that compliance amounts to
program effectiveness. EnergX set out to debunk
these and other myths about compliance and
performance resulting in a ground-breaking
approach to issues management. The Targeted
Assessment SolutionsTM (TAS) is one of a series of
issues management programs created by EnergX to help
organizations achieve and maintain regulatory
compliance while meeting their mission objectives.
The TASTM program features three main elements:
Assessment Needs Evaluation, Effective Compliance
TrainingTM, and Effective ComplianceTM Assessments
that can be used individually or collectively to cut
through meaningless assessment findings, ineffective
corrective actions, and inconsistent application of
requirements.
EnergX also performs traditional forms of quality
assurance, management assessments, and corrective
action management. These may take the form of
facility or project readiness assessments,
Operational Readiness Reviews, vendor audits, and
diagnostics of management effectiveness. This is
done cost effectively with a focus on higher
priority issues.
Targeted Assessment SolutionsTM Program
The EnergX Targeted Assessment SolutionsTM (TAS)
Program a risk-informed and performance-based
assessment approach designed to reduce the number
and scope of site assessments while providing
customers with noncompliance prevention strategies
for their most vulnerable issues. In other words,
the target in Targeted Assessment SolutionsTM is
what we call effective compliance. We
accomplish this by:
- Maximizing resources around essential outcomes
and minimizing the focus on low priority and
inconsequential issues.
- Reducing a site's cost of maintaining a large
full-time assessment staff.
- Customizing and focusing our services to meet
your needs.
- Establishing a partnership with management to
facilitate the achievement of their mission and
objectives.
- Reporting assessment conclusions and offering
recommendations based upon lessons learned research,
sound issues analysis, current cost reduction
practices and site closure experience.
- Providing the experience and expertise of our
assessment professionals, which includes more than
100 years of combined regulatory and nuclear
assessment experience.
The three elements of the Targeted Assessment
SolutionsTM Program are:
Assessment Needs Evaluation
EnergX's experienced professionals will evaluate
your site, program or project assessment program for
its effectiveness in identifying compliance
vulnerabilities, addressing management priorities,
and providing meaningful feedback and
recommendations for performance improvement. Our
report will furnish you with strategies to target
your assessment activities for maximum benefits.
Effective ComplianceTM Assessment Training
EnergX provides training to assessment personnel
on how to set goals based on management priorities
and mission objectives, how to develop assessment
schedules that supply coverage where it's needed,
how to assess and evaluate effective compliance,
how to analyze assessment results and how to provide
cost-sensitive and time-saving recommendations for
project improvements.
Effective ComplianceTM Assessment Services
EnergX offers assessment services using our
unique Effective Compliance TM approach. We
integrate management performance objectives and
regulatory requirements into our assessments that
result in identification of the gaps between where
you are and where you want to be, the reasons for
those gaps, and recommendations on how to close the
gaps. Our assessments are tailored to meet your
specific needs. From assessment scheduling,
planning, team leaders and assessors to root cause
analysis and corrective action identification and
mentoring, we operate on an as-needed, service
contract basis. We can provide assessment
specialists in nearly every aspect of nuclear site
operation.
Readiness Assessments, Operational Readiness
Reviews
Readiness Assessments, and Operational Readiness
Reviews (ORR) are formal processes that are designed
to ensure that complex and high risk activities can
be planned, started (or restarted) and conducted
safely. A structured and graded approach to
assessment and ORR processes, using proven
techniques guided by experienced personnel, has
proven to be efficient and cost-effective across a
wide spectrum of new start and restart activities.
EnergX offers personnel with the breadth and
depth of experience necessary to conduct Readiness
Assessments and ORRs and has successfully conducted
numerous and diverse assessments in the nuclear
weapons and commercial nuclear industries. The
assessment process typically includes the following
steps:
- Identify the level of risk of a project,
operation or activity based on complexity,
uniqueness, and severity of potential upset
conditions.
- Establish a graded approach to assessment
commensurate with the importance of the facility to
safety, safeguards and security, the life cycle
stage of the facility, the characteristics of the
facility, the cause and circumstances of shutdown,
and other relevant factors.
- Identify the minimum set of core requirements and
any additional requirements deemed necessary for
adequate review.
- Determine the breadth and depth of the review
based on knowledgeable people identifying relevant
topics based on their experience, and perhaps aided
by the use of a Readiness Tree that generates a
graphic representation of the elements to be
included.
- Conduct the assessment, typically employing a
three-element review strategy: review of
documentation, interviews of key and selected
personnel, and observation of representative
activities.
- Consolidate conclusions into a formal report that
identifies positive attributes, significant
deficiencies, and observations.
- Track pre-start and post-start corrective actions
to ensure safe startup and conduct of activities.
EnergX works closely with clients to evaluate the
potential risk of project/operation startup, to
determine the benefits of applying assessment and
ORR processes, and to select the appropriate level
and scope of assessment to conduct. Acting as an
independent reviewer, EnergX can then complete the
remaining steps of the assessment scope.
Management Assets
EnergX has conducted numerous assessments, both
from an independent perspective and in support of a
management self-assessment. The assessment areas of
expertise include:
- Conduct of Operations
- Personnel Training and Qualification
- Configuration Control
- Price Anderson Implementation
- Construction
- Procurement
- Corrective Action Planning
- Program Management
- Design Control
- Quality Assurance
- Decontamination & Decommissioning
- Radiological Safety
- Engineering
- Root Cause Analysis/Investigations
- Environmental Regulatory Compliance
- Software Quality Assurance
- Industrial Safety
- Vendor Audits
- Nondestructive Assay
- Waste (TRU Waste/WIPP; LLW/NTS)
- Operation Readiness Reviews
Diagnostics of Management Effectiveness
When companies and organizations become less
effective in their operations, they usually have
difficulty performing an internally-driven
assessment of the problem and identifying
appropriate corrective actions. By using an
independent assessment approach, it is possible to
achieve more quickly an unbiased assessment of
specific problems, systemic problems, and causal
factors. Subsequent recommendations from an
independent diagnostic effort by EnergX will include
a broad range of potential corrective actions that
will allow a company or organization to implement
the best mix of corrective actions to meet
management objectives.
EnergX personnel have conducted many evaluations
of management effectiveness, either as separate
tasks or within the framework of broader assessment
initiatives. Diagnostic assessment of client
identified problems have included:
- Loss of regulatory credibility
- Environmental issues
- Safety performance shortfalls
- Resource and staffing problems
- Financial issues
- Organizational problems
Due to the uniqueness of a client's business and
operating conditions, the sequence and scope of
diagnostic activities must be tailored to the
client's needs. EnergX prefers to use a graded
approach that creates substantial added value by
providing multiple solution options that match the
severity of the problem.
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