Preventing Your Own “Macondo” – How Effectively Are You Managing Safety Critical Elements?

Major accidents such as Macondo, Bhopal, Piper Alpha, Buncefield and others keep showing us that management of safety critical elements has not become second nature yet. In the fast paced world of technical complexity and global business competition we have buried ourselves under paper cathedrals so called “management systems” and seem to have lost focus of our journey.

Recent Australian regulatory experience with Major Hazard Facilities shows similar failures as to those identified by the Chemical Safety Board - Macondo Well investigation report (volume 2): management of safety critical elements is not readily seen in terms of validated management models such as Plan-Do-Check-Act; Performance standards are rarely defined for non-hardware elements; Element owners seem unaware of their responsibilities; Top level management does not review performance of safety critical elements; Assurance tasks lack clear pass / fail criteria and are not linked to the function and performance requirements of safety critical elements for preventing major accident events.

Furthermore, process safety indicators, if any, are generic and do not reflect actual barrier performance; Performance standards are usually set at a very high level and do not reflect on the components that work together to deliver the element’s function; Auditing activities are generally inefective and; Deviation management systems are overly-complex and poorly integrated.

Albert Einstein once said: "The definition of genius is taking the complex and making it simple". This presentation is about taking his words and applying them to management of safety critical elements in such a way that the deficiencies highlighted above will soon become a thing of the past. It builds upon the Centre for Chemical Process Safety Vision 20/20 of ”Vibrant Management Systems” by highlighting core requirements and depicting functional inter-relationships. It paints the big picture so that everyone understands their role and thus, able to easily use the system and deliver the required process safety responsibilities.