The business case for process safety: The foundational requirements to sustain success

Abstract

Companies operating in high-risk businesses have a process safety system in place. To be effective, safety systems must have impact across the organization. In order for a cross functional program such as process safety to achieve long-term impact, a company itself must achieve long-term success and profitability. Successful operating companies are founded on core principles and beliefs that are unchangeable no matter the operating circumstances or regime. These foundational principles provide the corporate resilience needed to make the necessary adjustments under all circumstances and assure continued success. This paper will define the basic foundational principles and requirements and their importance to achieving success as well as suggesting operational practices or traits based on these core foundations. This solid foundation will give program managers the resilience to allow them to make changes in programs that will reflect the changing market and societal conditions and requirements to ensure programs will be sustained over time. This paper will also consider factors that led to the demise of companies. Among a large variety of exogeneous factors and bad management, this can occur due to lack of process safety but also occur when they lose the balance between current exploitation and exploration. Successful companies develop a healthy balance between improving current practices and staying abreast of industry trends through innovation. The crucial role of leadership, the importance of risk analysis, the cost-benefit of new initiatives including safety measures, maintaining shareholder value, and several other factors, such as culture, adapting to new worker generations, training and drivers to success will be briefly treated.