Use Plant Walkthroughs to Enhance Process Safety Risk Discovery

Mohammed Saleh Al-Kanfari, PROCESS SAFETY, SABIC-IBN SINA, JUBAIL, Saudi Arabia

Abstract Text:

Plant walkthrough is one of the important tools to prevent incident to occur in petrochemical industries. The engagement of all organization level in plant Process safety walkthrough starting from executive management level in such shows commitment and lead by example to the whole organization. Involvement of the front liner is essential part of robust walkthrough systems as they are the first safety barrier in the plant.

Normal plant safety walkthrough focusing in incident related to occupational safety and less focus on process safety related issues. Process safety incidents have catastrophic impacts as a result of fire, explosion or major chemical release. That’s why IBN SINA Process safety team has establish new processes which is Process Safety Walkthrough that focuses in PS observations.

The Process Safety Walkthrough rounds is a periodic formal verification of the health of existing Process Safety BARRIERS using predefined checklists.

The purpose of Process Safety Walkthrough is:

• To identify hidden process safety risks.

• To ensure an effective system exists to manage Process Safety Walkthrough which will help in ensuring validity of the barriers installed by design or through operating procedures.

• To establish guidelines for carrying out PS Walkthrough by using pre-defined checklists.

• To assign responsibilities for effective implementation of PS Walkthrough system with action tracking, closure and a KPI reporting and review mechanism.

This paper discusses Ibn Sina Process Safety walkthrough system which ensures effective prevent major incidents. It also provides some examples of major observations that could lead to process safety incidents.