Pressure Relief System Information Management: A Component to An Effective Audit Program

The success of an organization's safety program in achieving the organization's own safety targets is typically measured utilizing a structured audit program. However, effectiveness of any audit program, whether comprehensive or limited, depends on the coherence of the audit program components, the availability, accessibility, validity, and accuracy of the data input to the audit program, and the time devoted to the audit process.

Pressure relief system information is a vital component of any successful safety audit program in a plant. A successful auditing of pressure relief system information, including the analysis and design basis of these systems, is ultimately correlated to the quality of analysis and the degree to which the analysis reflects actual safety gaps and deficiencies. The dynamic nature of the plant environment causes maintaining ?evergreen? pressure relief system information to be quite a challenge.

To address the challenges associated with the availability, accessibility, validity, and accuracy of pressure relief system information, a structured, evergreen pressure relief system information management program is presented. The objectives of this program are focused on the following:

? achieving organizational safety objectives and goals of ensuring safe pressure relief systems design;

? meeting safety regulating authorities' compliance requirements of a safe process operation environment;

? sustaining and supporting effective, comprehensive, limited, internal, or external safety audit programs;

? establishing a consistent and systematic approach of integrating safety systems audit practices with the plant overall safety audit activities.

In addition, the developed structured, evergreen pressure relief system information management program provides the tools for safety audit follow-up tasks to bridge the gaps and resolve deficiencies in pressure relief systems in an effective and transparent fashion.