Development of Regional Operational Training Guideline to Enhance Process Safety Culture

The majority of accidents in technical professions have human error as a causal element. More critically, these errors tend to involve interpersonal issues such as: communications, leadership, conflict, flawed decision-making, etc. This is especially true in the chemical industry due to the series of preventable, safety-related disasters that occurred in the late seventies and eighties. Some of the most notable disasters, during this time period, occurred at Bhopal, Flixborough, and Seveso.

In order to improve the Human Reliability and consequently the Safety Culture at the chemical plants, Monsanto Chemical Manufacturing plants in Latin America South developed their own Operational Training Guideline which covers:

a) New Selection & Hiring processes based on Safety Skill

b) Practical Training methodology driving the participants to apply the safety theoretical concepts by performing real scenarios

c) Operational Certification and Recertification followed by evaluation (minimum score = 100% performance for critical processes)

d) Technical Training Matrix and refresh frequency for operational, engineering and leadership staffs

The Guideline is composed by the following processes:

? Selection and Hiring

? Basic Traininig

? Operational Training

? Practical Training

? Engineering Training

? Certification, Recertification, Promotions and Position's changes

? Trainers Certification

This Training Guideline supports the reduction in the Process Safety Incident Rate (PSIR) established by CCPS at São José dos Campos Site.

Fiscal Year - PSIR

05 - 0.10

06 - 0.27

07 - 0.09

08 - 0.00

09 - 0.00