Permits and work orders stay open when closing them depends on someone remembering to do it at the end of a long hitch, which is exactly when people are focused on getting home. An open permit that nobody is actually working under creates confusion for the next crew and weakens the whole permit system.
The fix is to make closeout part of the handover, so a crew cannot finish their rotation with open permits without either closing them or handing them over to a named person. Reminders and a simple view of every open permit by owner also help supervisors catch what has been missed before it becomes a problem.