Change Management Success Story –Provisions for Carrying out Maintenance On Safety Instrumented Systems in a Refinery

A number of years ago, a Process Safety Management Instruction was created in order to establish provisions for bypassing or disabling Safety Instrumented Systems and Functions within the processes at the Irving Oil Refinery. The instruction was approved and issued, but, unfortunately never caught much traction. Panel operators and E&I technicians alike were unaware that the instruction existed. As a consequence each exercised their own discretion when it became necessary to bypass or disable a system when it malfunctioned. Some individuals saw it as a high priority and other would conclude that ?satisfactory? monitoring equipment was available to determine if the process was not stable and intervene to either stabilize it or shut the system down. Sometimes priority wasn't placed on repair of such devices and plant processes would be considered as operating risk-tolerant for periods of time. This paper outlines a successful approach to developing and implementing a change management and communication plan (ie. Managing the change) associated with the Instruction for Bypassing or Disabling Safety Instrumented Systems. The plan addresses the risk associated with carrying it out, describes the change characteristics, builds a team structure and identifies the sponsors. Anticipated points of resistance are identified and special tactics are discussed. Once the instruction is deemed ?in effect?, each area of the refinery has to report on what bypassed or disabled Safety Instrumented Functions or Systems are out of service and to identify what plans have been developed for monitoring the process while the Function or System is out of service. This ?stewardship? took place at the biweekly production meeting. At the start of the stewardship, there were 17 SIF's out of service. After 4 weeks of reports, there were 7 out of service. Plans to monitor and shutdown the process (if necessary) were in place for all 7. Bypassed or disabled SIS/SIF's continue to be tracked as a PSM leading indicator and personnel are now well aware of what is required when taking a SIF or SIS out of service.