January 23, 2018
January 19, 2018
January 16, 2018
Floating roof drain incident
In a hydrocarbon storage tank, the floating roof drain valve was kept open during rainy season. One night, operators smelt hydrocarbon vapours in the dyke area and found hydrocarbon liquid coming out of the open floating roof drain. The connection of the floating roof drain to the roof had failed due to corrosion. Are you checking them for internal corrosion?
January 13, 2018
Hazardous Energy source kills engineer
An analyser engineer was killed when the engineer removed the cover on an explosion-
proof enclosure during preventive maintenance. As the engineer loosened the cover, it came out with force and hit him on the head. The force was caused by pressure inside the enclosure from leaking sample gas or instrument air components. It was not equipped with an external indicator to determine the pressure inside the enclosure nor did it have any pressure relief device.
When you hand over equipment for maintenance, make sure all sources of energy are locked out, tagged out and tried.
proof enclosure during preventive maintenance. As the engineer loosened the cover, it came out with force and hit him on the head. The force was caused by pressure inside the enclosure from leaking sample gas or instrument air components. It was not equipped with an external indicator to determine the pressure inside the enclosure nor did it have any pressure relief device.
When you hand over equipment for maintenance, make sure all sources of energy are locked out, tagged out and tried.
January 9, 2018
Is your organization pulling people out of safety training or safety meetings?
In my long process safety consulting journey, I have seen really
committed organizations who demonstrate their commitment to safety as
well as those who don't really walk the talk. In one of the plants where
I was implementing PSM, the Vice President of manufacturing came to the
each of my training sessions 10 minutes before the sessions were
starting even though he was not required to be part of that training
session. He would stay for the first 15 minutes of every session and
then leave. Initially, there were latecomers to the meeting, but when
word went around that the Vice President himself is attending the start
of each session, people started coming on time. In over 20 training
sessions I had conducted, he never missed one. This was his way of
demonstrating his commitment and operational discipline.
In a diametrically opposite example, I had started implementing PSM in a medium scale organization that was very hierarchical in nature and was run by the top boss ("Owner"). In the first session with top management, the top boss thought that it was not important for him to demonstrate his commitment because he had other "important" things to do, I tried explaining to him the importance of his commitment and involvement, but when things did not improve, I stopped the project.
In another organization, the bosses of the Vice President who was attending my sessions kept on sending messages to him to contact them to discuss some organizational issue, while the planned session was on, even though they knew he was in a process safety session. I tell such organizations.....get your act together or do not implement PSM at all. It will be a guaranteed failure!
In a diametrically opposite example, I had started implementing PSM in a medium scale organization that was very hierarchical in nature and was run by the top boss ("Owner"). In the first session with top management, the top boss thought that it was not important for him to demonstrate his commitment because he had other "important" things to do, I tried explaining to him the importance of his commitment and involvement, but when things did not improve, I stopped the project.
In another organization, the bosses of the Vice President who was attending my sessions kept on sending messages to him to contact them to discuss some organizational issue, while the planned session was on, even though they knew he was in a process safety session. I tell such organizations.....get your act together or do not implement PSM at all. It will be a guaranteed failure!
January 5, 2018
Leadership and Process Safety Management
Every now and then we read about incidents of loss of containment even in reputed companies. Why do these incidents happen?
The incidents that I have investigated brings out two categories of leadership - one who think that once a PSM system is implemented, their role is over and the system should prevent incidents. The other is "We did not know this was happening or this risk was being taken at the plant".
Both are leadership issues that form the crux of why incidents continue to occur.
A PSM system is not like a light bulb....switch it on and no incidents occur! It requires top leadership on a daily basis to send the right signals to ensure the PSM system works as intended.
The leadership should also be competent in understanding the process safety risks and should spend quality time to seek and ensure that these risks are controlled on a day to day basis. PSM dashboards are good but can be more useful if leadership does a deep dive into the indicators. The dashboards can also lull you into a sense of complacency if the right indicators are not chosen.
Last, but not the least....Leaders should not review the PSM system AFTER an incident occurs but must proactively understand whether process safety risks are controlled on a day to day basis.
The incidents that I have investigated brings out two categories of leadership - one who think that once a PSM system is implemented, their role is over and the system should prevent incidents. The other is "We did not know this was happening or this risk was being taken at the plant".
Both are leadership issues that form the crux of why incidents continue to occur.
A PSM system is not like a light bulb....switch it on and no incidents occur! It requires top leadership on a daily basis to send the right signals to ensure the PSM system works as intended.
The leadership should also be competent in understanding the process safety risks and should spend quality time to seek and ensure that these risks are controlled on a day to day basis. PSM dashboards are good but can be more useful if leadership does a deep dive into the indicators. The dashboards can also lull you into a sense of complacency if the right indicators are not chosen.
Last, but not the least....Leaders should not review the PSM system AFTER an incident occurs but must proactively understand whether process safety risks are controlled on a day to day basis.
January 2, 2018
Good pragmatic article on BBS
BBS is not a panacea for everything. This article is a pragmatic view of the BBS process
Read it in this link
Read it in this link
January 1, 2018
Happy New Year!
Another dawn of a New Year! Wish you and your family a very Happy, Healthy and Safe New Year!
December 30, 2017
December 28, 2017
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