Processing safety success in five steps

Written by admin

July 29th, 2013

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Process safety focuses on preventing fires, explosions and accidental chemical releases in process facilities such as refineries and oil and gas production installations.

As such, it is important that managers, operators and safety providers leave no stone unturned when it comes to processing good on-site safety.

So here’s 5 steps help you shore-up your process safety management systems.

1. Understand the approach needed for process safety

Fortunately, accidents don’t happen everyday. Even so, it is important to make sure your safety processes are kept up-to-date.

One way of doing this is to differentiate between immediate failings and shortcomings in underlying systems.

Remember though, there is no such thing as a finished process safety guide. Take a Darwinian approach by evolving and adapting your process safety initiatives to new situations.

2. Implement best practice process safety management systems

An effective process safety management system should faithfully follow the yellow brick road of good practice requirements. It also must be tailored to specific process safety hazards present at your site.

A large manufacturing site which produces and distributes chlorine will have different procedures than a small facility storing flammable liquids, for instance. So implement an independent review of process safety management systems to identify and prioritise gaps from good practice.

3. Understand process safety risks

Senior managers must thoroughly understand the main risk scenarios of their facility and remain constantly vigilant to complacency toward the risk control systems. The scenarios should be available in safety reports or similar documents such as hazard and operability reports.

If this information is not available or is out of date, executives should initiate a thorough review of process safety hazards using competency specialists.

4. Investigate process safety incidents

Learning from the past provides great insight into securing a better tomorrow. So cast a careful eye across past incidents accidents and see if you can reveal similar ‘near misses’ on your site that weren’t effectively followed up.

A ‘near miss’ is an unplanned event that did not result in injury, illness, or damage – but had the potential to do so. Make sure that your staff are aware of what a ‘near miss’ is and why they must be reported.

5. Carry out site visits

Process safety decisions might be made in the boardroom but it is important to don your hard hat and get out on site. First hand exposure to the risks leads to the enactment of more effective process safety management systems.