Interface Management

Bridging Documents

Complex Interface Agreements

Many incidents occur due to poor communications between two or more companies working at the same location, often on the same project or task. The Center for Offshore Safety has published Guidance on Safety and Environmental Management for System Interface Agreements. The following is from the Introduction to the document.

This document provides guidance for the clear definition and documentation of safety and environmental management systems expectations with example interface agreements and guidance for selection, application, and use. The guidance is meant to aid Companies and Entities in managing the interface requirements of a management system.

(A Company is an operator or contractor who intends to establish, implement, and maintain a SEMS. An Entity is an operator or contractor that performs work and/or provides facilities, services, equipment, supplies and/or information for a Company or on a Company’s asset.)

Bridging Documents

The need for bridging documents with regard to SEMS compliance is discussed in the book Offshore Safety Management. When two or more organizations have Safety Cases that interface with one another a bridging document is also needed. For example, a floating production platform may have a floating drilling rig connected to it. Each facility has its own safety case, so a bridging document is needed to align them. The bridging documents needs to consider problems at the interfaces such as the possibility that the anchors from one platform may interfere with the subsea equipment from the other.

Bridging documents are also used to create facility-specific versions of generic safety cases. For example, the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) has prepared a safety case template for a wide range of drilling operations (both onshore and offshore). A bridging document can be prepared to match the needs of a particular facility to the general template structure.