(48b) Guidelines for Managing Abnormal Situation - a New Resource from CCPS

CCPS has teamed with Baker Risk and Engineering Consultants (Baker Risk) and the Abnormal Situation Management Consortium (ASMC) to publish a book and related on-line training materials on the topic of Managing Abnormal Situations. Abnormal Situation Management (ASM) is a valuable enhancement to any company’s process safety management system. This paper is one of two presentations in this session about this book. The second paper is being presented by Tom Williams of the ASMC and will describe the application of best practices and human factors knowledge to managing abnormal situations, as included in the book.

The paper will describe the purpose and scope of the book including the business case for ASM. The collaborative environment that was followed to develop the book will be detailed including the roles and contributions of the Book Committee, Baker Risk, and the ASMC.

It is envisaged that this book will be read by operations management and support services personnel (such as those in maintenance, engineering, and process safety), who will be able to develop relevant training and support material to recognize and then prevent or mitigate abnormal situations from occurring at their facility. This book includes the historical development of principles and procedures for managing abnormal situations as well as a summary and review of available resources for addressing them. It also provides guidance for management and engineers to develop appropriate training and procedures and demonstrates how to institutionalize these into process operations. Since many of the principles and practices of managing abnormal situations are transferable across industries, this book provides some guidance and suggestions on sharing knowledge and learning from a variety of industries and disciplines that are leaders in such management.

Case studies are included as training aides for frontline operating personnel including supervisors and operators. Thirty five short Case Studies are imbedded throughout the book that complement the ASM concepts discussed in the manuscript. One chapter is devoted to in-depth Case Studies that illustrate the principles presented in the book. The value derived from the inclusion of the Case Studies will be demonstrated.

As part of the development of this book, five online training modules were developed relating to abnormal situations. These training modules can be used by supervisors, plant engineers, and trainers to help train operating teams in diagnosing an abnormal situation. The modules allow the trainer to step through specific abnormal situations and discuss diagnosis of the abnormal situation, actions to be taken, learnings, and relevance to their own plant operations with the team members who are being trained. A demonstration of the on-line training modules will be included in the presentation.