Process Safety Reflection at Site (PSRS)

For Process Safety professionals, it has been a great challenge in a production environment to engage and educate people to improve Process Safety awareness. In our organization, we tried a balanced approach between an audit and training.

The process is quite simple: a team of multifunctional people are gathered at site and pick up a small section of unit or set of equipment under scope for discussion. The team will go through a chat on various Process Safety aspects for the small scope under consideration. The various aspects include applicable Process Safety elements such as Mechanical Integrity, Management of Change, Pre-Startup Safety Review, Process Safety Information, Operating Procedures, Training, Contractor Management, Incident investigation review. Pictures will be taken and key notes will be taken by the members. While doing this exercise at field, at the working level, people get an opportunity to relate and reflect at field what Process Safety really means to them and how it is related to their day to day life.

The observations and â??reflectionsâ? by the members are then discussed and clarified within the team. Key â??Take-awayâ?s and only the critical & actionable items are documented in the form of a report with pictures and circulated to the respective stake holders including the top management. The report helps in improving the awareness among the other members of the organization and the top management to understand the â??actualâ? implementation of Process Safety practically in the field and it is a direct reflection of the present status.

In the report, scores are given to each Process Safety elements and evaluated to understand the key areas to focus. The identified areas to focus (for e.g. Asset Integrity, Contractor Management) are taken as important Process Safety goals in the next yearsâ?? annual plan and budgeted accordingly.

The key differences between an audit or training and this PSRS process are:

• There are neither auditors nor auditees, neither trainer nor trainees but all are team members; more room for two way communication and open discussions.
• No follow-up action is imposed on the team members, (unless it is critically an unsafe condition); team members feel free to think and raise their queries.
• Indirect, slow and steady way of sharing Process Safety knowledge and culture in to the working level people.

The management and the employees have expressed their individual benefits visibly and endorsed the success of this initiative in our organization.

However, is it practical to have a smooth implementation of any such initiative or program? To know more about Process Safety Reflection at Site (PSRS), please stay tunedâ?¦