Effects of Human Factors in Process Safety

Accidents and near-miss accidents in chemical industries are widespread. Most of the incidents occurred due to combinations of organizational and human factors. To identify the causes for an incident of an accident analysis is needed, because it reveals the possible causes behind the accidents. Accident analysis shows the human and organizational factors that support learning from the events. Literature review shows that human error plays an important role of accidents in process industries. The chapter discusses some case studies which are received very little media publicity and also no proper assessment. At first reports on the incidents were collected from newspapers and then the place was visited to conduct an interview with local people and present and past workers with the help of the PESO (M/S Petroleum and Explosive Safety Organization, Eastern Region, Govt. of India).

Industry Process Safety

This chapter deals with the issue of process safety in industrial companies and major accident prevention. In the present-day technologically advanced world, industrial accidents appear ever more frequently, and the field of major accident prevention has become a dynamically developing discipline. With accelerating technical progress, risks of industrial accidents are to be reduced. In the first part, possible approaches to quantitative risk assessment are presented; and continuing it focuses on the system of risk management in industrial establishments. This chapter aims at providing experiences, knowledge, as well as new approaches to the prevention of major accidents caused by the implementation of the Seveso III Directive.

Disinvestment in the presence of uncertainty: Description of a novel, multi-group, disinvestment trial design and protocol for an application to reduce or cease use of mobilisation alarms for preventing falls in hospitals

Disinvestment is the removal or reduction of previously provided practices or services, and has typically been undertaken where a practice or service has been clearly shown to be ineffective, inefficient and/or harmful. However, practices and services that have uncertain evidence of effectiveness, efficiency and safety can also be considered as candidates for disinvestment. Disinvestment from these practices and services is risky as they may yet prove to be beneficial if further evidence becomes available. A novel research approach has previously been described for this situation, allowing disinvestment to take place while simultaneously generating evidence previously missing from consideration. In this paper, we describe how this approach can be expanded to situations where three or more conditions are of relevance, and describe the protocol for a trial examining the reduction and elimination of use of mobilisation alarms on hospital wards to prevent patient falls. Our approach utilises a 3-group, concurrent, non-inferiority, stepped wedge, randomised design with an embedded parallel, cluster randomised design. Eighteen hospital wards with high rates of alarm use (≥3%) will be paired within their health service and randomly allocated to a calendar month when they will transition to a “Reduced” (<3%) or “Eliminated” (0%) mobilisation alarm condition. Dynamic randomisation will be used to determine which ward in each pair will be allocated to either the reduced or eliminated condition to promote equivalence between wards for the embedded parallel, cluster randomised component of the design. A project governance committee will set non-inferiority margins. The primary outcome will be rates of falls. Secondary clinical, process, safety, and economic outcomes will be collected and a concurrent economic evaluation undertaken.

Holistic Approach In Human Error Management

Despite all safety measures taken in oil and gas plants, serious vehicular accidents happen during maintenance/ shutdown activities, due to human errors such as inadequate planning, improper decision making/ behaviour etc. affecting structural integrity/ process safety, resulting in catastrophic events. In most of such incidents, swift safety measures need to be undertaken to control the extent of damage and limit additional risks cascading from the main event. This paper presents the case study of a vehicle impact incident on an existing main piperack located in the process plant, its root causes and immediate actions adopted in controlling major hazard and ensuring uninterrupted plant operation by maintaining structural integrity. Prime factors considered while arriving solutions to structural damages due to the vehicular impact include, incident cause, extent of damages, availability of restoration material, execution feasibility under plant operating conditions and skillsets of work force that carries out the restoration activities. Due to various constraints, solution arrived are temporary, averting multiple structural failures/ major accident. Further investigation and studies were required to identify root cause of the incident and enhance the implemented solution that would reaffirm long-term integrity of the piperack structure. The vehicular impact loads are generally not accounted in general structural design, since necessary safety measures are considered while finalizing the plant layout. Such unanticipated vehicular impacts on the structural system can result in local/ global structural damages such as failure of critical pipe supports, consequential damage to adjacent pipes, other structural components etc. In this case, although there was a warning signboard (installed on the pipe rack) indicating maximum permissible height, contractor tried to drive the container vehicle having height more than the stipulated height. Since the vehicle passed through first obstruction (beam) located at much higher level, driver negligently moved the vehicle further ahead hitting internal beam located slightly above the limiting height thereby damaging structural beam supporting critical piping. In this incident, site surveys to inspect the damage, data review, structural assessment and details of material in stock are some of the common steps followed for swift restoration of structural integrity. Based on the same, temporary support to prevent further structural damages and restoring operational integrity was designed and implemented in a short time. Other main activities followed were, Walk through the incident to derive the root cause Review work instructions and communication protocol Human factors pertaining to the incident Review the application of management and administrative control Permanent solution for structural restoration Ensuring safety of critical assets is the top most priority for the asset owner. Further, any accident related to safety shall be dealt swiftly to control major hazard, maintain asset integrity and ensure process safety. Such incidents could happen in any industrial facility, oil and gas or other industries. The lessons learnt from this accident and fit for purpose swift actions employed for restoration can be shared with the industry professionals to ensure 100% HSE in projects, operations and maintenance activities.

Zohr Field Process Safety Operative Self-Assessment

Zohr field has developed a smart tool for the Process Safety compliance self-assessment. Scope of the tool is to evaluate field Process Safety Management system performance as well as driving a step change in field culture by making Process Safety a transversal target for all departments, not only HSE. To reach this scope, an internal Field multidisciplinary team has been created with the scope to verify the Process Safety pillars compliance through a simplified check list and scoring model. The initial 8 key elements are: ESDs Alarm management Safety Critical Elements Overrides Loss of Primary Containment Management of Change Permit to Work Manuals/Procedures For each elements a weighted scoring model from 0 to 5, composed by multiple questions, has been defined; a detailed guidance is supporting and assisting the team during the assessment. Once completed the scoring model a traffic lights system integrated with a spider diagram will automatically represents the field compliance with the elements. A quick and immediate graphic representation identifies then the main gaps for each elements. Based on those results the multidisciplinary team defines an Action Plan to be addressed to the relevant dpt for improvement and follow-up. The assessment frequency has been set to 6 months and the multidisciplinary team is appointed on rotation basis by Zohr Field General Manager and the relevant Department General Manager. The first PS self-assessment performed in Zohr in September 19 showed the PTW system and SCE management as the main points of strength while the Management of Change implementation and the ESD tracking as the elements to be improved. In particular Zohr has already set a robust system for the PTW management through a dedicated technical process team SIMOPS and developed a robust override and leak management system across the related departments. As all the plant modifications have been managed so far thorough a DCN (Design Change) System with project support, as action plan was foreseen to implement a dedicated system for the electronic management of the MoC. The first assessment highlighted also the need to improve the actions monitoring to keep traced all the findings coming from the RCA of the plant ESD and PSD. Moreover as additional benefit the interactive self-assessment tool effectively contributed to spread across all the departments the Process Safety terminology and culture in order to allow the team to get familiar with the pillars with a smart and user friendly approach.

API Process Safety Site Assessment Program PSSAP®: Significant Program Updates and Future Focus

The American Petroleum Institute (API) and the U.S. oil and natural gas industry have long been committed to protecting the health and safety of our workers, contractors and neighbors. For more the 75 years, API has led the development of industry standards, sharing lessons learned as well as the establishment of training and certification programs. In recent years, despite safety improvements by the refining industry, incidents have increased attention on process safety by industry, governments, non-government organizations (NGOs), and the media. Recognizing these concerns, API and our memebrs are working collectively to improve or develop new programs improve process safety performance. As part of the industry's ongoing commitment, API, in collaboration with industry partners, has developed a Process Safety Site Assessment Program (PSSAP®), an assessment program focused on evaluating higher risk activities in a refining, petrochemical, or chemical facility. This program is intended to: Promote process safety performance improvement industry wide; Promote learnings from industry practices; Provide benchmarking through the consistent use of industry-developed good practice protocols; Serve as a feedback mechanism for an analysis of industry performance; and, Encourage safety collaboration among participating sites and industry experts. PSSAP benchmarking, a key aspect of the program, allows sites to judge their performance against that of their peers in a blinded fashion. In addition to this benchmarking, the consistent use of our good-practice protocols enables API to analyze where companies may still be working to improve. Taking that information, API has implemented other programs to assist industry in those areas. Further, it has allowed API to quantify PSSAP protocol scoring improvements across the industry, seeing positive momentum in benchmarking scoring across the life of the program. PSSAP® is also a primary resource to support API Energy Excellence® implementation. API Energy Excellence is another critical API program in which all API members commit to enhance the integrity of operations across the industry by applying standards, implementing workforce training programs, and participating in performance initiatives. Downstream and petrochemical operators can use these PSSAP protocols to help demonstrate conformance to their API Energy Excellence requirements. PSSAP® is flexible so that sites can tailor assessments to specific needs and operations. It provides options for smaller sites that do not have on-site internal assessment capabilities or do not think a full PSSAP General Assessment is warranted. It is intended that assessments focus on higher risk activities and includes an evaluation of both the quality of written programs at a site and the effectiveness of field implementation of those programs.