Improving Risk-Based Decision Making By Connecting PSM Systems to Day-to-Day Plant Operations

Deficiencies in safety management systems have potentially catastrophic effects to an organization's facilities. That’s why smart companies have implemented management control and regulation systems to monitor operational performance across the plant. Corrective course can be taken when one of these systems is not performing to its full potential; however, evaluating multiple deficiencies and their cumulative risk along with ongoing plant activities remains a challenge given that much of this information remains in disconnected "silos" managed by disparate groups.

When it comes to repairing impairments, it is often the case that there is insufficient time and resources to fix as well as to continue to inspect and maintain the plant given differing priorities and disparate groups competing for consideration. Budgets ultimately will be a constraint, but more pressing can be the necessity for equipment downtime, logistics considerations, the impact on other planned operations and the ongoing challenge of managing an ever growing backlog of deferred activities. Tension arises because competing groups have differing objectives. Asset Integrity wants to ensure primary containment is not compromised, Reliability wants to make sure critical rotating equipment continue to operate, Operations wants to keep the plant running and maximize throughput, Compliance want to make sure that OSHA, API, SEMS standards and regulations are followed and HSE has a rigorous schedule of inspection and calibration to maintain the integrity of the process safety system. Paired with the many operational requirements, competing pressures for maintenance and limited resource capacity, herein lays the challenge of effective planning and prioritizing work, compromising production efficiency and operations.

Advances in operational performance and risk management technology enables organizations to use a risk based approach to understanding and managing critical systems deviations. With a “common currency” of risk, enterprise functions such as maintenance, planning, operations and HSE can access KPIs to visualize and effectively prioritize and execute work. This approach can similarly be used to dynamically assess risk and re-prioritize work as needed during the day-to-day execution of work. The result is risk-based visualization into process safety for optimized operations and improved plant productivity.

This presentation and paper will help plant operators identify risk from the boardroom to the frontline, use risk-based decision making to better prioritize plant maintenance and scheduling, connect deviations from the various process safety management systems to optimize work execution – ultimately changing the safety productivity dynamic across plant operations.