(103b) THE ROLE OF COMPANY MANAGEMENT IN ESTABLISHING A STRONG PROCESS SAFETY PROGRAM AND CULTURE

Process safety regulations around the world either specify a set of tasks that must be completed to assure safety, or require the company to submit for approval a set of tasks they plan to complete, or some combination. In general, the tasks themselves are well understood, and include the elements described in the US OSHA PSM regulation and the CCPS Risk Based Process Safety management system. In general, these tasks are assigned to be carried out by low-to-mid-level personnel.

Experience has shown that this approach has led to process safety performance gaps. Faced with other production responsibilities, hazards go unrecognized or unmitigated, process safety tasks are missed, short-cuts are taken, and deadlines are not met. As a result, process safety incidents occur, even in facilities that, on the surface, appear to be performing all their process safety tasks.

To overcome these process safety management gaps, execution of process safety management system must be driven by leaders at all levels of the company. Senior leaders must set process safety performance criteria, define objectives and goals, provide necessary resources, and monitor execution of goals, improvement plans, and overall management system performance. Mid-level leaders must oversee execution of the plans and verify management system performance. Frontline leaders must ensure day-to-day that all required work is completed professionally and on time. By doing so, leaders make process safety become a way of life, rather than just a set of tasks. This presentation will describe the steps that leaders at all levels must take to establish a strong process safety culture.