(51c) How to Implement a System That Gives Empowerment of Operators and Create Culture of Performance and Accoutability in Process Safety, Realibility and Proftability

HOW TO IMPLEMENT A SYSTEM THAT GIVES EMPOWERMENT OF OPERATORS AND CREATE CULTURE OF PERFORMANCE AND ACCOUTABILITY IN PROCESS SAFETY, REALIBILITY AND PROFTABILITY.

In the petrochemical industry, chemical plants and refineries deal with very large volumes of flammable and toxic materials. The risk of fires, explosions or personnel exposure to toxic gases and chemicals is always present. In addition, as populations increase, the resulting growth in demand for land, for residential and commercial purposes, causes refineries to face an unrelenting pressure to seek permission to let more and more people live in closer proximity to their processing and storage facilities.

Every workplace presents its own challenges and safety concerns. However, it is up to the employers and employees alike to handle risk mitigation efforts at work. This process starts at the top, with the provision of a safety management program that covers the risks associated with hazardous chemicals.

The management of operational risks in petroleum refineries is intended to guarantee the safe, reliable and profitable operation of production systems. This is accomplished by managing risks in the gap tolerance setting, considering the likelihood of occurrence of accidental scenarios and the severity of their consequences.

The main purpose of this presentation it to show an Operational Management System (OMS) that enhances stable operations in order to achieve environmental compliance, process safety and operational reliability, along with positive impacts on financial performance.

The system is based seven key elements:

1. Empowerment of operators
2. Culture of performance and accountability
3. Collaborative and dynamic decision-making
4. Performance information to pinpoint individual contributions to goal attainment
5. Clear transparency,
6. Wide use of analytics
7. Awareness & response

This system consists of a real-time process data acquisition and analytics from the industrial process that is following by the panel operator. The data analytics allows identify deviation of a process variable (overtaking of limits defined). All of the data are collected, and the operator performance is recorded. Score screening can be used to define training programs. In a collaborative environment, operators and supervisors are able to provide solutions to solve problems and to improve the system. All of the data and performance assessments are available and easy to perform additional analytics with them. In order to identify improvements on process safety, reliability and economic results, the mechanical and chemical engineers, can create a study case to identify and enhance areas identified from operator and supervisor comments.

After six years of implementation in all of Petrobras's 15 refineries and fertilizer facilities, this project enabled users to create proactive indicators which helped to standardize performance across all shift teams. In addition, the tool enabled definition of narrower operating ranges, targeting and reinforcement of training, reduction of failures in systems by operation out of optimal range, better operational control and, more stability, safety security and profitability of operations.

The OMS benefits for process safety, reliability and economics benefits has been reported in this article.