How to Maintain a Process Safety System

Related Vendors

DÜPERTHAL Sicherheitstechnik GmbH & Co. KG

TURCK GmbH

ProMinent GmbH

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL)

Enter the Risk Factor — Why Less Sometimes is More

Essentially, the hazards involved in these different activities need to be identified and the risks assessed. Then, elaborate systems and procedures should be built to contain these risks within acceptable levels. As chemical reactions may be exothermic in nature and can result in many unfavorable consequences if not controlled, the documentation exercise becomes immensely beneficial.

Hazardous events that have lesser consequences, but are much more likely to occur, may appear to pose a higher risk. Risk is calculated by identifying probable consequences and their frequency of occurrence by multiplying these two to get a risk score. Often, the four quadrant method of analyzing the combination of incident frequency with consequences of a failure is used for risk assessment. All activities, both routine and non routine, are subjected to hazard identification and assessment procedures, with high scoring activities being continually reviewed to further incorporate measures to reduce any given risk. This forms the backbone of a good CPSM covering various elements of process safety.

Safety Culture and Mannerisms — the ‘Hidden’ Factors

According to the Centre for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS), process safety culture has been defined as ‘the combination of group values and behaviors that determine the manner in which process safety is managed’. The process safety culture of an organization is thus a significant determinant of how it will approach process risk control issues.Failures of process safety management systems can therefor often be linked to cultural deficiencies. A good process safety management enforces strong systems such as Permit to Work (PTW), strong management Technical Authority Limits (TAL), etc., and provides a culture of Counsel, Appreciate, Reprimand, and Enforce (CARE).

Accordingly, companies and organizations are increasingly seeking to identify and address such cultural root causes of process safety performance problems.

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