Enhancing Process Safety: 5 Tips to Build a Better SystemEnhancing Process Safety: 5 Tips to Build a Better System

Reports of accidental releases involving hazardous chemicals at fixed facilities in the US reached all-time highs during the 2023 fiscal year.

Judith Leslie, senior principal specialist

October 4, 2024

4 Min Read
A process safety program starts with empowering employees
A successful, high-performing process safety program starts with empowering employees.kelvn/iStock/Getty Images Plus via Getty Images

It’s an unfortunate reality that process safety incidents have been on the rise for the past several years.

Reports of accidental releases involving hazardous chemicals at fixed facilities in the United States reached all-time highs during the 2023 fiscal year,” points out David LaCerte for Bloomberg.

The Chemical Safety Board (CSB) elaborates that the number of reportable incidents increased by 51% over the previous year while incidents involving serious injuries increased by 11%, and accidents involving deaths increased by 78%.

According to insurer Swiss Re, in the refining and petrochemical industries, around 40-50% of process safety incidents and/or major losses happen during abnormal operations such as shutdowns and startups.

For these reasons and others, process safety improvements are top of mind in the industrial sector. So how can organizations prioritize limited resources, people-power, and time to take action?

Here are five recommendations that are likely to make a big difference in improving your process safety culture.

1.    Establish Strong Leadership Foundations

The stakes for a strong process safety culture are higher than ever. A single significant loss of primary containment could have potential impacts ranging from serious on-site and off-site injuries and illnesses to environmental damage, company reputational impact, financial costs from equipment damage, production loss, and even lawsuits filed against the company.

For this reason, leadership commitment plays a crucial role. Senior facility management must demonstrate a strong commitment to process safety by prioritizing safety above productivity targets. Resources, dedicated time, and direction-setting will be necessary for process safety activities and initiatives.

It comes from the top down — leadership must steer the direction forward.

2.    Prioritize Real-World Applications

A structured, framework driven approach is essential. Strong process safety cultures typically prioritize routine management reviews that focus upon the following steps:

  • Assessing the effectiveness of various systems (i.e. process safety programs)

  • Feeding opportunities back into applicable programs

  • Executing improvements

  • Testing the changes on an ongoing basis

One approach to follow is the plan-do-check (PDCA) approach, where individual processes operate through the larger structure of an overall leadership improvement cycle. Parts of the cycle include:

  • Assessing trends: Analyze near misses, incidents, regulatory compliance, effectiveness of risk management processes, mechanical integrity, and safety policies.

  • Executing improvements: Implement corrective actions and continuous improvement opportunities identified during the reviews.

  • Testing changes: Continuously monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the improvements.

The key is to harness, analyze, and continually act upon real world data.

3.    Empower Employees at All Levels

A critical factor in process safety success is encouragement — particularly among employees who demonstrate an interest in becoming team leaders and subject matter experts (SMEs).

When employees have an opportunity to contribute their ideas, learn, and grow, they are more likely to feel engaged at work. With respect to process safety, an inclusive approach helps in building a culture in which improvements are focal points rather than afterthoughts. Education will be critical to achieving this objective — lack of process safety knowledge among engineers and senior operations staff can be a major gap.

Investment in employees’ process safety knowledge will pay off as an ROI-driving investment. In the highest performing process safety environments, SMEs often lead committees including a variety of skills which are focused on specific process safety program elements—which can accelerate improvements in a cost-effective manner.

4.    Start Small for Bigger Wins

Starting small, prioritizing more straightforward process safety management issues first and foremost, can yield early successes. Small wins are also typically easier to implement and sustain. With early wins, organizations can establish a foundation to build up to more substantial safety improvements.

As an example, even minor adjustments in process safety action item management can help with building process improvement muscle for organizations to handle more complex changes in the future. The key is to ensure that improvements are sustained so that other activities with the potential to lead to process safety incidents — such as startups, shutdowns, maintenance activities, and other abnormal operating conditions — can also be tackled for improvements to reduce the potential for serious process safety events.

5.    Implement a Continuous Improvement (CI) System

With CI, organizations can implement a systematic approach to starting small, achieving early wins, and building up towards more substantial changes.

Kaizen and Lean Manufacturing are two effective approaches for continuous improvement in process safety.

  • Kaizen: Originating from the automotive industry, Kaizen focuses on continuous, incremental improvements. Although less common in chemical manufacturing, companies like DuPont have implemented Kaizen with positive results.

  • Lean Manufacturing: This methodology aims to simplify processes. For example, simplifying a complex Management of Change (MOC) process by reducing the number of steps can significantly improve efficiency and safety.

No matter the CI methodology that you choose, it’s important to recognize that all can be effective. The key is to choose the methodology that’s the right fit with your technical and people processes — and to ensure that the conditions are in place to stick with the approach.

Final Thoughts

A successful, high-performing process safety program starts with empowering your workers. By focusing on early wins, engaging employees, utilizing effective methodologies, and enhancing process safety knowledge, companies can create a culture of continuous improvement that significantly enhances both safety and operational efficiency. Start small — and keep going.

About the Author

Judith Leslie

senior principal specialist, aeSolutions

Judith Lesslie (CFSE, CSP, CCPSC) is a senior principal specialist at aeSolutions and based in Based in South Carolina. With more than 40 years of experience, including 35 years working at the chemicals division at a major energy company, Judith’s specialties include PHA facilitation, auditing, technical review, and mentoring of junior staff members. Starting at the ground level in instrumentation maintenance, she worked her way up through various roles including planning, instrument and electrical engineering, technical support for operating facilities, operations management, and health, safety, & environmental engineering and management. Her journey led her to one of the very first dedicated roles in process safety engineering within her company — likely one of the first roles of its kind in the industry. With the introduction and implementation of the ISA S84 standard on safety instrumented systems, process safety became one of Judith’s greatest passions. Today, she is sought-after as an advisor for her process safety expertise and track record for systems implementation success.

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