Process Risk and Reliability Management

Operational Integrity Management

Ian Sutton

• Publisher: William Andrew
• Year: 2010
• Topic: Business
• eBook ISBN:
  9781437778069
• Subtopic: Insurance
• Index: Business

In the last twenty years considerable progress has been made in process safety, particularly in regard to regulatory compliance.  Many companies are now looking to go beyond mere compliance; they are expanding their process safety management (PSM) programs to improve performance not just in safety, but also in environmental compliance, quaility control and overall profitability.  Techniques and principles are illustrated with numerous examples from chemical plants, refineries, transportation, pipelines and offshore oil and gas.  This book helps executives, managers and technical professionals achieve not only their current PSM goals, but also to make the transition to a broader operational integrity strategy.  The book focuses on the energy and process industries- from refineries, to pipelines, chemical plants, transportation, alternative energy and offshore facilities.  The techniques described in the book can also be applied to a wide range of non-process industries. The book is both thorough and practical.  It discusses theoretical principles in a wide variety of areas such as management of change, risk analysis and incident investigation, and then goes on to show how these principles work in practice, either in the design office or in an opperating facility. - Learn how to develop process safety, operational integrity and operational excellence programs - Go beyond traditional hazards analysis and risk management programs to explore a company's entire range of procedures, processes and mangement issues - Understand how to develop a culture of process safety and operational excellence that goes beyond simple rule complience

CHAPTER

1

Operational integrity
management

CHAPTER CONTENTS

Introduction

Operational Integrity/Excellence

Process Safety Management

Major Events

Examples

Fundamentals of PSM

Health, Safety and Environmental Programs

Quality Management

Risk

Acceptable Risk

Risk Matrices

INTRODUCTION

The first edition of this book was published in the year 1997 with the title Process Safety Management (PSM) (Sutton, 1997). At that time process safety regulations in the United States had been in force for just a few years so companies in the process industries were developing and implementing the programs needed to address the new regulations. The need for process safety regulations had arisen as a result of a number of very serious process plant incidents that occurred in the 1970s and early 1980s. (Some of these incidents are listed in Table 1.4.) In the United States process safety legislation was included in the amendments to the Clean Air Act of 1992. This legislation directed the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop, implement, and enforce process safety standards in order to protect both workers and the public. Some states also introduced their own process safety regulations.

Similar programs were introduced in the same general time frame in many other nations and industries. For example, regulations covering the offshore industry in the North Sea were introduced following the Piper Alpha disaster of 1986. In addition, industry organizations such as the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the American Chemistry Council (through the Responsible Care® program) developed their own process safety standards.

Considerable progress to do with process safety has been made in the 15 years since the early 1990s—particularly with respect to regulatory compliance. For example, prior to the early 1990s few companies had a formal Management of Change Program; now such programs are part of the furniture in almost all process facilities. This is not to say that further improvements cannot be made. Indeed, in the words of one facility manager, “There is always news about safety, and some of that news will be bad”. Moreover it is likely that, over the course of the last 20 years, there have been greater improvements in occupational safety than in process safety (Whipple, 2008). (The different types of safety are discussed on page 18.) In addition, new concerns—such as the increased shortage of experienced employees—have come to the fore as being a potential source of decline in process safety performance. Nevertheless, the process industries (including the regulators) can take a great deal of credit for having made substantial strides in process safety during the course of the last two decades.

Many companies are now looking to go beyond mere regulatory compliance to expand their PSM programs, to increase performance not just in safety, but also in environmental compliance, quality control, and profitability. In other words, they are moving into the broader topics of Process Risk and Reliability Management—the title of this book. Another term that describes the same transition is Operational Integrity Management (OIM)—the title of this chapter.

This book was written to assist those managers and technical professionals who are seeking to make this transition from PSM to the management of risk and reliability. (However, in recognition of the fact that regulatory compliance is always an issue, Chapter 15—Process Safety Management Compliance—discusses what needs to be done to abide by the PSM rules and regulations.)

OPERATIONAL INTEGRITY/EXCELLENCE

Operational integrity management is rooted not just in process safety management, but also in the many other technical initiatives that companies have been pursuing during the last two decades in order to improve safety, environmental performance, and profitability. A partial list of such initiatives includes the following:

RAM (reliability, availability and maintainability) programs that focus on achieving maximum profitability;

HSE programs covering the broad spectrum of Health, Safety and Environmental work;

Statistical Process Control;

Quality standards such as ISO 9000; and

Occupational and behavior-based safety programs that help improve the actions and behaviors of individuals.

Each of these topics—along with many others not listed above—can be thought of as contributing toward the overall discipline of operational integrity, as illustrated in Figure 1.1. A facility which has a high level of operational integrity is one that performs as expected in an atmosphere of “no surprises”. The facility exhibits integrity in all aspects of its operation.

In addition to the incorporation of a wide range of management techniques that are shown in Figure 1.1, operational integrity can be applied to a much wider variety of industries than was the case with traditional process safety management. OIM can be used not only in chemical facilities and refineries, but also in transportation, pipelines, and offshore oil and gas.

FIGURE 1.1

Operational Integrity Management Programs.

Many companies are also developing operational excellence programs. The manner in which these can relate to operational integrity is shown in Figure 1.2. Operational integrity is made up of technical initiatives; operational excellence incorporates nontechnical management systems that can affect safety and operability. These include distribution, inventory management, outsourcing, supply chain management, and procurement.

PROCESS SAFETY MANAGEMENT

Figure 1.1 shows that process safety management is an integral component of operational integrity management. Therefore, it is useful to review the elements of PSM because they are so foundational to risk and reliability management work. Different companies and regulatory agencies have different approaches to the topic, but the standard promulgated by OSHA (the United States Occupational Safety & Health Administration) is widely used (OSHA, 1992). The development of the standard involved considerable input from the leading operating companies of the time, and has often been applied, regardless of whether a facility fell under OSHA’s jurisdiction. OSHA divided process safety into the 14 elements listed in Table 1.1.

The topics listed in Table 1.1 were not new. Companies have always carried out activities such as the writing of procedures, planning for emergencies, training of operators, and the investigation of incidents. However, the regulation did have the following effects.

FIGURE 1.2

Operational Integrity to Operational Excellence.

Table 1.1 OSHA Elements of PSM

1	Employee Participation
2	Process Safety Information
3	Process Hazards Analysis
4	Operating Procedures
5	Training
6	Contractors
7	Prestartup Safety Rev...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Operational integrity management
• Chapter 2: Culture and employee involvement
• Chapter 3: Hazards identification
• Chapter 4: Consequence and likelihood analysis
• Chapter 5: Technical information and industry standards
• Chapter 6: Asset integrity
• Chapter 7: Reliability, Availability and Maintainability
• Chapter 8: Operations, maintenance, and safety
• Chapter 9: Operating procedures
• Chapter 10: Training and competence
• Chapter 11: Emergency management and security
• Chapter 12: Incident investigation and root cause analysis
• Chapter 13: Management of change
• Chapter 14: Audits and assessments
• Chapter 15: Process safety management compliance
• Chapter 16: Managing a risk and reliability program
• References
• Index