(153b) When Product Safety Becomes Process Safety

Process safety management strategies are often predicated on the assumption that specific safeguards or engineered solutions will perform according to product specifications. For example, a process hazard analysis team may reasonably assume that a rupture disk will burst at the rated pressure specified by the manufacturer when considering specific hazard scenarios. However, process safety incidents have resulted from products failing to meet their specifications or being unfit for their intended application. This paper focuses on the concept of product safety management, which can be defined as the system of policies, procedures, and practices implemented to achieve a desired level of safety with a manufacturer’s product. Good practices for product quality management systems that emphasize product life cycle will be presented, with a focus on evaluating a manufacturer’s application of quality management practices to safety-critical products used in the chemical process industries. This will include a discussion of product safety management concepts that an end user (e.g., design or process engineer) may consider in relation to process safety. The importance of product safety to process safety will be emphasized by highlighting specific incidents of product failures that have been documented by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.