(8c) Courageous Process Safety Leader – a Bad Guy

An honest competent process safety engineer is considered to be the trouble maker and a job stopper. This is one of the most thankless role in the high hazard industries. If this role is performed honestly without taking into consideration the impact on the relationship with the management and employees, then the results are certainly positive and encouraging for a long run.

The author will share three real life examples with challenges and success stories. The first example is from a corporate world, he influenced senior management about the benefits of process safety, where none of their operations were covered by OSHA-PSM. The second example is from the major projects, an engineering and design world, where he influenced project directors, projects managers and design engineers to implement inherent safety in design in projects. The last example is from an operating refinery, where he changed the process safety culture at the management as well as shop floor level by implementing effectively a work permit system which was completely broken. The author faced several challenges and threats which impacted his personal life in addition to the professional relationships.

This paper will be concluded by sharing the Do’s and Don’ts for transforming the process safety culture from corporate world to engineering and design and down to the shop floor in complex high hazard industries.