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October 4, 2011

PSM and Money


I am slightly changing a statement made by the great Mahatma Gandhi (Earth has enough for every man’s  need but not enough for every man’s greed), to suit process safety management – PSM has enough for every man’s need but not for every man’s greed! In PSM’s context, by “greed”, I mean pressure to cut costs and increase profits without looking at the process safety consequences. Time and again, when you look at various incidents that have occurred and continue to occur even today around the World, the finger points towards cost cutting or insufficient budgets implicitly affecting process safety performance. Whatever model of PSM you adopt, “greed” cannot be managed by a system– is has to be managed by a human being and that too the ones at the top.  .They can manage this only by understanding the consequences of their actions. Not understanding the consequence of a decision that involves cost cutting or even by not properly allocating and approving budgets can have serious consequences on any process safety management system. Even though you might have implemented a system that addresses cost cutting etc, such systems have a tendency to get bypassed in times of pressure.This happens even in the "best" of companies. Any solutions???

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