Process Safety Management Vs Experience

There is a school of thought that systems corrupt the people's ability to think. Recently I was in a debate with one of my friends in the Chemical Industry who was arguing that his organization has people with tremendous experience and there is no necessity for him to implement any system.
Trevor Kletz has said it very beautifully "Organizations do not have memory". What happens when these people leave or retire? Having spent my whole career in the chemical industry, I am convinced that the phrase "History repeats itself" can be adpated to "Incidents repeat themselves". I keep investigating incidents of tank ruptures,fires and explosions, runaway reactions that uncannily had happened either to me or my friends decades ago.Having a robust process safety management system that captures organizational memory and integrates it with day to day decision making is what is needed to prevent these incidents from recurring.