Implementing Process Safety Indicators in the Industrial Complex of Camaçari- Bahia - Brazil

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are amongst the most important tools of a good Management System. If they are chosen correctly and measured in an adequate way, they drive the decision-making process. The KPIs are usually divided into Proactive and Reactive types. This concept is also used in Process Safety Management (PSM), where the indicators are called Leading (proactive indicators) and Lagging (reactive indicators).

This paper aims to share the practice developed in the Industrial Complex of Camaçari for Process Safety indicators reporting. Released in May/2013, the guideline has chosen comprehensive Leading and Lagging indicators, defined based on available data, technical literature research and companies’ capabilities to comply with the requirements.

A seminar was conducted in order get companies’ representatives trained on the technical concepts used in the guideline. A web-based system for data entry was developed in order to simplify data collection steps, while assuring information protection. The system was designed to allow statistics reports for future management reviews.

Camaçari’s Industrial Complex has started its operations in 1970’s. Since then, it has been committed to implement the best practices on Safety Management within its associated companies. Nowadays, COFIC has 90 companies installed, a total of 45,000 workers and revenues that exceed US$ 16 billion.

Implementing a single methodology for KPIs reporting applicable for the whole industrial complex has been an important challenge.  Information security was one of the most critical factors for this procedure. All data are strictly confidential and each site has access only to its own information. On the other hand, it is possible to generate statistics to compare each plant to the average of all sites for a given indicator.

Once performance can be tracked along the time, the PSM indicators system is also a good tool to demonstrate commitment to Safety for key stakeholders, such as Government departments or Community in general.