The ‘Soft Side’ of Process Safety - Culture, Competency, Improvement

As various petrochemical incidents and near-misses have repeatedly shown, implementing the 14 elements of process safety management (PSM) alone does not guarantee a successful PSM program. There are various "softer" aspects of process safety to which companies and sites must pay attention, such as: process safety culture, compliance with standards, process safety competency, stakeholder outreach, conduct of operations, measurement and metrics, and management review and continuous improvement. In addition, one of the principal training challenges facing PSM implementation is developing the skills to look beyond intended performance. While HAZOP and other PHA methods are designed to explore deviations from intended operations, they require that all participants be open-minded to possible deviations from intended performance - whether when sitting in a PHA or operating/maintaining a plant. This session welcomes papers addressing the development and improvement of any of these aspects of the ‘soft side’ of process safety.