Process safety must be the responsibility of all technical and operations personnel. As such, this responsibility is not limited to attendance at PHA revalidations; rather, it must be an ongoing, integral part of supporting manufacturing operations. Compartmentalization of process safety knowledge and practice can hinder proper identification of potential safety consequences of change; near misses and incidents can occur due to lack of understanding about controls (administrative and engineering) necessary to ensure continued safe operation.
This paper will present examples of actual near misses that have occurred due to misunderstanding, miscommunication, loss of institutional knowledge, and unmanaged personnel changes that lead to failures in understanding and properly evaluating the consequences of changes made to support daily operations.