(48c) Managing Abnormal Situations: How Do We Know What Works?

The Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS), and the Abnormal Situation Management Consortium (ASMC) have jointly produced a book titled, “Guidelines for Managing Abnormal Situations”, published by J. Wiley & Sons, Inc. The contracted manuscript developer was Baker Risk. This is a practical book that uses case histories to illustrate failure modes and lessons learned.

The ASMC joined the CCPS Project to assist in development of a comprehensive book that describes proactive approaches to reduce the impact of abnormal situations. Over the last 30 years the ASM Consortium has pioneered new measurement methods, tested potential improvements at major universities, and piloted prototype solutions in member operating plants. In sum, the Consortium verifies that new solutions work in plant environments. Some of these are released in the form of Journal articles (on the Consortium website) and in specific Guidelines available for purchase.

A major concern of the Consortium is that improvements are often deployed in piece-meal fashion and rely heavily on new technology solutions alone. The new book provides a remedy: It takes a comprehensive view and illustrates how known best practices and human factors knowledge can be used proactively to improve Plant Operations.