Defining Process Safety Management. Chapter 1-4

In order to understand the themes of this site it is useful to consider the three words that make up the title, ‘Process Safety Management’.

Safety

The first word to consider is Safety. Most companies in the process and energy industries treat safety as their top priority. But achieving high levels of safety on their technically sophisticated facilities is difficult due to their technical complexity. It is particularly difficult to identify and control high consequence incidents because such incidents happen only rarely. Simple, behavior-based safety programs are inadequate. Hence, process safety management (PSM) programs are needed.

In this context, the word Safety may be too restrictive. After all, a company that is good at managing safety is also likely to be good at managing other aspects of their operations, including reliability, environmental performance and quality control. Therefore, Process Safety Management is not just a safety program.

Process

The next word to consider is Process. In this context the word refers to those facilities that handle highly hazardous or flammable chemicals ― often at high temperatures and pressures, and usually in large quantities. The technologies used tend to be complex and difficult to analyze.

It is important to draw a distinction between process safety and occupational safety. PSM is mostly concerned with process related issues such as fires and the release of toxic gases, as distinct from occupational safety issues, such as trips and fall, vehicle movement, and the use of protective clothing. (ISO 45001 provides an international standard for occupational health and safety programs.) However, the line between the two approaches is indistinct, and there is a lot of overlap. An effective process safety program will generally lead to improved occupational safety. However, the actions and programs that improve occupational safety do not necessarily lead to improve process safety. Indeed, a good occupational safety record can lead to complacency when it comes to process safety.

Some process safety professionals concentrate on the technical aspects of the discipline — they work in areas such as fire and explosion modeling, the selection of materials of construction and the calculation of overall risk. This type of work can be categorized as being Process Safety Engineering.

Management

Management is the third word in the term Process Safety Management. A Process Safety Management (PSM) program is not fundamentally a safety program about chemical and energy processes ― it is actually a management program. High levels of safety can only be achieved through the development and implementation of appropriate management techniques that eventually build a safety culture. A manager is anyone who has some degree of control over the process, including operators, engineers and maintenance workers. Effective control of an operation can only be achieved through the application of good management practices.

In the context of process safety, companies generally have three levels of management. Senior managers set the overall goals, and provide the necessary funds. The middle managers organize the details of process safety programs and allocate resources, particularly skilled and experienced personnel. At the third level, line managers such as supervisors and senior technicians implement the process safety programs. (A similar structure applies to design projects; the design engineers are the equivalent of senior technicians.)

This way of looking at process safety management means that the discipline covers all aspects of a company’s operations, not just technical topics such as vapor dispersion and hazard identification. Equally important are analyses to do with human behavior and the company’s organization.

CCPS Definition

The Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) defines Process Safety Management as follows,

A management system that is focused on prevention of, preparedness for, mitigation of, response to, and restoration from catastrophic releases of chemicals or energy from a process associated with a facility.

This definition is written at the 21st grade reading level, so it is not easy to follow. Probably the key word in this definition is ‘catastrophic’ ― the focus is on the control of major incidents.

The CCPS provides additional guidance as to what constitutes a process safety event:

• It must involve a chemical or have chemical process involvement,

• It must be above a minimum reporting threshold,

• It must occur at a process location, and

• The release must be acute, i.e., it must occur over a short period of time.

In this book we define process safety management somewhat differently.

Process Safety Management is an on-going management process that involves all managers, employees and contract workers. It minimizes uncontrolled change from operating intent by keeping the process within its safe limits.

This definition stresses the following features:

• PSM is on-going; the management of process safety is never complete. In the words of the proverb,

There is always news about safety, and some of that news will be bad.

• PSM involves all workers — the management of safety is not something that is restricted to those who have the word ‘manager’ in their title. Nor is process safety limited to direct employees. If a contract worker is on site for just one day, he or she is a part of the process safety program.

• Safe limits are properly defined, everyone knows what those limits are, and they know what to do if the limits are breached.