Case Study Summary Essay

Submitted By zhaoliqing1966
Words: 570
Pages: 3

Business in Bhopal
Summary:
Union Carbide Corporation’s pesticide plant in Bhopal India was operating at a loss, so it cut a lot of its budget for maintenance operations for the plant. Thus many broken important safety equipments were never replaced. Moreover, the company replaced the plant’s maintenance staff with less experience people and they failed to isolate a pressure tank with methyl isocyanate inside from the pipes they were cleaning with water. Thus, the water entered the tank without them noticed and created volatile chemical reaction that would caused the tank to explode and release deadly poison. The operators in the plant never had any emergency training, and he relied on his guts to analyzed problems. Therefore, the operators could not prevent the plant from exploded and the poison released from the explosion killed at least 2,500 residents near the plant. Nevertheless, all the workers at the plant survived.
Causes:
1. The company replaced the plant’s maintenance staff with inexperience people, which cause the water to enter into the pressure tank when they are cleaning the pipes. 2. The operator in the previous shift did not entered the correct pressure for Tank 610, which cause Dey, the operator for the current shift, to missed judged the data. 3. The operators at the plant have to rely on their throats, lungs, eyes, and ears to locate the place of the gas leak. Thus, they cannot located the gas leak quickly and identity the problem. If they could, then it would save them some time. 4. Many of the safety equipments were not replaced. For example, the coolant for the plant’s refrigeration unit was drained out, and never replaced because the company wants to save some money. Most importantly, the maintenance staff removed the corroded pipe connected to the flare tower, and never replaced it. This caused the operator, Dey, not able to activate the most foolproof safety system that could’ve prevented the plant from exploded. 5. All the operators in the plant never taken any emergency procedures training, so they relied on their instincts to solve and analyze the emergency problems.

Design improvements: 1. Provide the operators the appropriate trainings that they need, so they know how to react when in emergency