(51a) Contractor Management – Are Regulatory Requirements Managing New Risks?

Contractors have always been used to help facilities manage various work tasks such as pipe fitting, welding, etc. Contractors can provide these specialty trades to help companies manage their process safety systems while also helping mitigate their risk / liability. Although the Process Safety Management standard and Risk Management Plan rule have requirements for managing contractors, these requirements have become significantly outdated as the work of contractors has evolved significantly. Companies now are not just outsourcing trades, but now even Process Safety Coordinators, engineering, maintenance tasks, and even operation of Process Safety-covered systems entirely through leasing tanks. This is often driven by cost savings, but also limiting risk / liability. This paper will discuss how contractor management has evolved over the past few years, the potential impact on managing process safety systems, and recommendations for ensuring that your contractor management program can include to help manage contractors based on the wide variety of tasks they can undertake today.