(14c) Process Safety Campaigns for Reinstating Sense of Vulnerability

The commitment for implementing the Process Safety Management (PSM) in operational facilities is gaining momentum in India across wide range of industrial sectors. Most PSM implementation programs are strategized around integrating PSM in the existing Management Systems or existing procedures of the facility. There are many frameworks for implementing PSM. Generally, it takes time for the field level personnel to comprehend and usually take more efforts to appreciate the PSM approach and recognize their role.

To bridge this process safety concepts retention gap and sensitizing process safety aspects among along all personnel, particularly front-line personnel, Cholamandlam MS Risk Services has been using the process safety campaigns as part of Workforce Involvement element for promoting different aspects of the other process safety elements. The process safety campaigns have been identified after a detailed analysis of the available incident bases. Process safety campaigns are selected in such a way that they are either a preventive or mitigative barrier to prevent process safety events. Few process safety campaigns identified are - process and utility piping walkthroughs, dead legs management, ignition sources (including earthing and bonding), interlock bypass, common failure modes for each process equipment, rotating equipment seal monitoring, tie-in points, laydown areas, process design limits excursion, thermal stress, alignment of valves, availability of spares, flexible piping management, residue or deposit accumulation, corrosion under insulation, external impact, process mock drills, review of emergency escape routes etc. Each process safety campaign revolves around the following management aspects (similar to PDCA) – debriefing the standard or requirements, training or competency development, identifying the field level gaps, prioritizing the jobs, and tracking the jobs for closure of gaps. This helps in reinstating sense of vulnerability for front-line personnel and eventually emphasizing importance of respective preventive and mitigative barriers.

This paper details on the different perspectives for choosing process safety campaigns from the analysis of incident bases. Also, this paper elaborates on different checklists and formats for each of the process safety campaign. To summarize, case studies will be presented where process safety campaign approach was successful in process safety concept retention, bringing focus on preventive and mitigative barriers, imbibing sense of vulnerability and effective for implementing Process Safety Management.