Chemical Engineering October 2014 - 56

Feature Report
initiating an incident, but in order
for the automated functions to be
effective, asset-integrity systems
covering the operation and maintenance
of these safety-critical pieces
of equipment become necessary.
Whether manual or automated, a
consistent and accurate execution
of safety-critical tasks requires operating
discipline and the ability to
monitor for changes in risk. Incident
investigations reveal that deterioration
of the barriers and safeguards
often start long before the accident
occurs, and that no systems existed
to detect and report their loss. There
are three main contributors to this
deterioration of barriers and safeguards:
the passage of time, covert
risks and complacency.
The passing of time. Just because
a safety incident has not occurred
for some time does not mean that
all is well. If assets are poorly maintained
and operating processes not
regularly checked for safety effectiveness,
they will eventually stop
providing the level of risk reduction
they were originally designed
to provide.
Covert risk. Risk has a propensity
to emerge from the least-expected
places. The inability to visualize
where the risks are and the source
of the next incident is an open door
to disaster.
Complacency. Statements like
" This is how we always do it " and
" Don't fix it if it isn't broken " are
heard frequently. As months and
years pass without incidents, it
is all too easy to become complacent,
especially when it is not readily
apparent where hazards can
stealthily develop. That is when
poor habits can infiltrate processes,
and running overtime becomes the
new normal.
Overall, the " Swiss Cheese " model
alone is too porous and static to
achieve the next safety performance
breakthrough. Instead, the
confluence of human error, operating
data and information-management
systems must be addressed.
Process-safety challenges must be
viewed as a holistic system-integration
problem in order to make
meaningful progress.
Data Sources
Planning
Scheduling
Cost control
Logbooks
Rounds
Procedures
Inspections
Maintenace
DCS
PLC
SIS
SCADA
HAZOP
LOPA
SIL/SIF
SRS
In
Integrated Procedures
nt
nteg
P
Operational efficiency
Actions
Figure 2. Various sources of information can come together to provide a realtime
visualization of operational risks
Holistic systems integration
Non-integrated process-safety programs
may address some of the " low
hanging fruit, " but they do not prevent
everything, as is evident from
the prevalence of catastrophic incidents.
The integration of manual
tasks with automated procedures
and smart interface design aids in
avoiding deficiencies in procedure
implementation and communication,
as well as minimizing the potential
for human error. The key
pieces already exist in the operational-technology
(OT) and information-technology
(IT) realms and now
must be pulled into conjunction to
comprehensively address the growing
complexity of the human factors
that contribute to safety incidents.
For example, on the operational
technology side, companies can
implement state-based unit-control
schemas to address a range of normal
and abnormal operating conditions.
They can also employ automation
systems to detect abnormal
events and take preemptive actions
to stop incident propagation. Additionally,
they can implement abnormal
situation management (ASM)
graphical standards to optimize operator
navigation during abnormal
events and alarm management to
promptly focus attention on safetycritical
issues.
On the IT side, companies can
integrate standard operating procedures
(SOPs) with automated
delivery of the latest revision of
the required tasks, electronic time54
ChemiCal engineering www.Chemengonline.Com oCtober 2014
stamped signatures, prescribed records
and quality tolerances. Any
procedure can be further supported
with safety rules and automated interlocking
functions, to ensure that
manual tasks are sequenced properly,
that the proper individuals are
notified for certain tasks, and that
detailed findings are consistently
recorded for monitoring purposes.
Further, workflow applications can
be deployed to aggregate the results
to the desired level of granularity
to facilitate adequate information
sharing and reduce the chances of
human error.
Most promising of all is the opportunity
to integrate realtime analysis
into the overall picture to identify
operational risk before it translates
into incidents, and to drive the most
effective risk-mitigation schemes.
Figure 2 illustrates how data can be
leveraged through proper integrated
procedures to help visualize risk.
Static versus dynamic risk
Risk is not static; things are always
changing. Safeguards can develop
faults, or they can be down for
maintenance. New and different activities
may be taking place during
installations. Organizations, people,
resources and logistics can easily
and quickly shift. In short, nothing
should be taken for granted. Rather,
organizations must bolster safeguards
and barriers in a dynamic
fashion. To do this, they can monitor
leading indicators of increased
vulnerability to incidents on a dayInformation
o
Information
InI
I
Analytics
Process
safety
management
Visualization
Operational risk
Data
Data
Data
Data
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Chemical Engineering October 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering October 2014
