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June 6, 2018
1:45PM - 2:45PM
Achieving Excellence in Process Safety Performance: Current Needs and Considerations Beyond Regulations
Floral A1
Speaker: Dr. Sam Mannan, Regents Professor of Chemical Engineering - Texas A&M University
Process safety management (PSM) program, promulgated by OSHA 1910.119 regulation, has been practiced by the industry for about 25 years, but incidents still keep happening. Being a performance-based regulation, the outcome clearly depends a lot on appropriate risk assessments and implementation of adequate programs based on the risk. Thus, often poor or inadequate safety programs will result from check-box mentality, lack of rigor and competency. Some noteworthy reasons that continue to hinder the quest for process safety excellence include: 1) learning from the past incidents, 2) building process safety competency, 3) establishing safe work practices, 4) engaging leadership in process safety, and 5) building a culture of safety in promoting positive changes.
Once a robust safety program is achieved, there still lies the question whether anything else should be considered for excellence? Though it is extremely difficult to provide a straight forward answer for various known and unknown reasons, recent incidents have clearly demonstrated that enough measures are not present in practice. Shortcomings in process safety programs have been highlighted by recent incidents, particularly in reference to natural hazards triggering technological disasters (NaTech), for example, hurricane Harvey (2017), Fukushima (2011). In these cases, safety barriers proved inadequate in various aspects of prevention, mitigation and emergency response. A robust safety program should be designed based on Prevention, Mitigation and Response (PMR) concept, also referred to as the safety triad in this paper. The effectiveness of an excellent safety program also depends on how good it is in communicating the concepts of risk and hazard, not only to its employees but also to the public. A progressive or proactive approach to consider these items among many others is needed in establishing process safety excellence.
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06/06/2018 01:45 PM
06/06/2018 02:45 PM
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Achieving Excellence in Process Safety Performance: Current Needs and Considerations Beyond Regulations
Speaker: Dr. Sam Mannan, Regents Professor of Chemical Engineering - Texas A&M University
Process safety management (PSM) program, promulgated by OSHA 1910.119 regulation, has been practiced by the industry for about 25 years, but incidents still keep happening. Being a performance-based regulation, the outcome clearly depends a lot on appropriate risk assessments and implementation of adequate programs based on the risk. Thus, often poor or inadequate safety programs will result from check-box mentality, lack of rigor and competency. Some noteworthy reasons that continue to hinder the quest for process safety excellence include: 1) learning from the past incidents, 2) building process safety competency, 3) establishing safe work practices, 4) engaging leadership in process safety, and 5) building a culture of safety in promoting positive changes.
Once a robust safety program is achieved, there still lies the question whether anything else should be considered for excellence? Though it is extremely difficult to provide a straight forward answer for various known and unknown reasons, recent incidents have clearly demonstrated that enough measures are not present in practice. Shortcomings in process safety programs have been highlighted by recent incidents, particularly in reference to natural hazards triggering technological disasters (NaTech), for example, hurricane Harvey (2017), Fukushima (2011). In these cases, safety barriers proved inadequate in various aspects of prevention, mitigation and emergency response. A robust safety program should be designed based on Prevention, Mitigation and Response (PMR) concept, also referred to as the safety triad in this paper. The effectiveness of an excellent safety program also depends on how good it is in communicating the concepts of risk and hazard, not only to its employees but also to the public. A progressive or proactive approach to consider these items among many others is needed in establishing process safety excellence.
Floral A1
