(13c) Dynamic Barriers Monitoring in the Mining Industry and Its Contribution to Process Safety

The development of methods for dynamic monitoring of barriers is increasingly a reality in different industrial sectors. The solid systematization of routines through computerized solutions enables the development of systemic interfaces that can provide a number of benefits to the facilities’ safety, such as those to be pointed out by this study. Vale S.A., like other major players in the mining industry, follows ICMM’s (International Council on Mining and Metals) guidelines for critical control management, which are closely aligned with the RBPS (Risk Based Process Safety) model proposed by the CCPS (Center for Chemical Process Safety). The cycle begins with the hazard identification and risk analysis and proceeds with the selection of critical controls, definition of barriers’ performance criteria, assignment of responsibilities, on-site implementation, verification of operational fulfillment and response to inadequate performance, then returning to the initial step with the review of safety studies. During the barriers performance audit, an activity that can require a relatively long time when carried out manually is the analysis of maintenance and inspection plans adherence. Some cases may involve hundreds or thousands of items, making the procedure extensive and susceptible to failure which ultimately may lead to an inaccurate assessment and management of the related risks. In this context, the CCM (Continuous Control Monitoring) was developed as a way to automatically and assertively perform these checks, as well as constantly update the maintenance status related to each barrier mapped by the process safety studies. The adopted strategy is based on the integration between online risk and maintenance management tools, which enables data exchange between systems, thus supporting the determination of the protection layers’ status. Once specified to which maintenance assets each safeguard is related, periodic and automatic verifications of the maintenance condition of the applicable assets are carried out, allowing timely signaling of vulnerabilities in the risk management system with precision, data detail and traceability. Additionally, the correlation between assets and barriers of high-potential hazardous events supports and automatically determines the prioritization of maintenance activities and escalation of leadership notification in cases of non-compliances. The main foundations of this approach are the identification and analysis of risks and the relationships between barriers and assets data. Such connections are established by local engineering teams, with the proper knowledge on the operational equipment at each site, supported by the risk management staff. These personnel, in turn, apply hazard identification and risk analysis methodologies widely used in the industry, such as bowtie, HAZOP (Hazard and Operability Analysis) and LOPA (Layer of Protection Analysis) based on pre-established acceptability criteria, as part of the risk and control management cycle mentioned previously. In this sense, only critical barriers related to high severity risks regarding people, the environment or operational interruption are taken into account. This selection occurs automatically and in real time in the risk management tool, providing only applicable controls for engineering analysis and also removing asset prioritization in the maintenance managing system if any criteria are no longer met. Automatic checks of barriers already associated with assets occur at a pre-determined frequency and verify: (i) the existence of a maintenance plan, (ii) the absence of leadership notification about delays for more than fifteen days, (iii) whether the last maintenance order was executed and (iv) whether it is within the deadline considering the maximum tolerance registered in the system. For the test result to be positive, all rules must be met on all assets linked to the barrier. The process relies on constant data exchange between systems, which keeps updated the databases of assets and maintenance plans, notes and orders, besides risks, controls and associations between the elements. Pending analysis and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) results are made available online through specific reports, with data accuracy and efficiency. The correlation between barriers and assets in the system is still being defined by the team, but currently almost 50% of critical controls related to operational risks with high potential impact have already been made available for automatic verification of the CCM. Nowadays, the tool performs around 16,000 operational barriers checks monthly, a volume that is impractical to achieve manually. Hence, the implementation of this automation brought significant gains in assertiveness, optimization and compliance in the barrier and asset management processes, especially from the point of view of integrity and reliability. Risk management as a whole benefits from the automatic and timely identification of possible non-conformities in the maintenance of assets, as it signals the need for corrective measures, as well as supporting the analysis of risk classification and the adoption of appropriate governance.