(32dd) Use of Tabletop Exercise for Emergency Scenarios

A Table Top Exercise is an emergency preparedness activity thattakes participants through the process of dealing with a simulatedemergency scenario. In tabletop exercises, key personnel whohave critical roles (Critical roles are those where a lack ofcompetency can result in significant unmitigated operational risks)talk about their roles during an emergency and how they areexpected to react in those scenarios.
It is applicable for all the top events scenarios (C4 & C5) identifiedby the departments through PHA (Process Hazard Analysis)/HIRAor any other emergency scenario arising from dept.’s EmergencyPreparedness and Response Document.
The purpose of a tabletop exercise is to evaluate department’spreparedness for an emergency scenario and to inform requiredparticipants of their roles in the response. Key personnel presentduring the exercise have the opportunity not only to become morecomfortable with their own roles in the emergency scenarios, butto see how the entire response will play out across thedepartment. All the 3 shifts should be covered for all the TableTop scenarios.
Activities to do before Table Top Exercise:
A yearly plan for conducting Table Top Exercise to be made foridentified scenarios as per Annexure#1.
Department needs to make a yearly plan for conducting Table TopExercises. All the top events scenarios (C4 & C5) identified by thedepartments through PHA (Process Hazard Analysis)/HIRA or anyother emergency scenario arising from dept.’s EmergencyPreparedness & Response Document.
Define the Scope for the Table Top Exercise
The scope of the Scenario should be pre-defined for conductingthe Table Top Exercise. Aspects of defining the scope includefunctions to be practiced or tested, start & end limit of the Scenarioidentified, involvement of potential agencies etc.
Identify the people involved in the Table Top Exercise for anyscenario.
Participants, Facilitator & Observers should be identified for thescenario. Refer point no 7.3 for the roles & responsibilities ofdifferent agencies.
Activities to do during Table Top Exercise:
Start the Table Top Exercise with discussion on similarincidents/emergency scenarios in other department/plant/steelindustries
Provide a timeline for the exercise
As the exercise will take place in an accelerated timeframecompared to a real-life event, a timeline should be defined initially.Participants should expect that the exercise will proceed in acondensed time frame, so events will unfold rapidly (not real time).Remind the team that a real emergency will require flexible timemanagement skills.
Script development of the Table Top Scenario is one of the mostimportant step in the whole exercise.
For any Scenario, write downthe sequence of steps which can lead to emergency and try toexplain the expectations against those steps to the participants.This activity shall be done by the facilitator.Stepwise action takenas well as steps to overcome the situation by the participant in anemergency scenario should be discussed in this step.
Also,Facilitator should discuss failure mode of each step and
deliberate with the participants for the action to be taken if thestep fails.
After above step has been performed, a detailed discussion shouldtake place for what actual actions need to be taken for every stepmentioned as per the Emergency Preparedness & Responsedocument/SOP/Reference Document against those discussed andjotted down by the team. Facilitator should match those stepswritten with the steps written in Emergency Preparedness &Response document/SOP/Reference Document.
Detailed
discussion should take place on the
failure mode of each stepwith the participants for the action to be taken.
Activities to do after Table Top Exercise:
Provide time to review the exercise.
Suggested questions can be:
What strengths in your workplace’s emergency plans did thisexercise identify?
What weaknesses in your workplace’s emergency plans did thisexercise expose?
What unanticipated issues arose during the exercise?
What gaps were identified?
What are some high-priority issues that should be addressed?
What are some new ideas and recommendations for improvement
Conduct Debriefing after the Table Top Exercise
Following the exercise, participants and facilitator shall compile anafter-action report, detailing any key findings or questionshighlighted during the exercise.
Purpose of debriefing is to:
Evaluate changes and corrections to the original EmergencyPreparedness & Response document.
Evaluate requirement of any additional inter-departmentcoordination.
Serve as a guide for future exercises.
Verify the exercise goals were achieved.
Evaluate training and personnel deficiencies