Process Safety Management Research Articles

The New Three-Dimensional Safety Approach for the Implementation of Process Safety Management (PSM) and Improving Safety Aspects for the Pharmaceutical Industry in India – An Overview

Implementation of the fourteen elements of process safety management (PSM) helps to build a good safety culture in the organization. The new three-dimensional approach, which consists of good safety practices, safety precautions, and frequent checking of the process equipment and its devices has been applied to the various elements of the process safety management. The elements of process safety management are six, four, and three are good safety practices, safety precautions, and frequent checking of process equipment and its devices but one of the elements is the combination of all the three-dimensional approach, which is a trade secret, which insists that all the people in the organization should follow all the documented procedures from two to thirteen elements of the process safety management, the controlled copy should only be used inside the company premises. We have taken secondary published data for assessing the deviations of the three-dimensional safety approach for the human failures in the pharmaceutical industry, which has led to various incidents/accidents from October 2017 to September 2021. The deviation, which we have observed for the good safety practices, safety precautions, and frequent checking of process equipment and its devices was ten, nine, and one numbers before implementation of the process safety management. After the implantation of the process safety management, the incidents were reduced to three numbers from January 2022 to August 2023, in which deviation has been found in the two and one for the good safety practices and safety precautions.

Modeling the causal mechanism in process safety management (PSM) systems from historical accidents

Process safety management (PSM) underpins reducing major accidents in the process industries. For decades, PSM systems have been implemented globally. However, few studies have modeled the complexities within the PSM system, leading to some underlying chronic problems within organizations that go unnoticed. Here, we investigate causal mechanisms among PSM elements from historical accidents to deliver a practical tool for safety intervention formulation. Specifically, based on the Center for Chemical Process Safety's (CCPS) PSM framework, 100 chemical accident reports derived from the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) were analyzed and converted into structured information stored in 22 PSM elements. Then, employing two causal structure learning algorithms, the causal structures among 22 elements were learned from the processed accident information. Finally, the causal effects among PSM elements were estimated by extending Rubin's counterfactual causal framework to an approach applicable to multi-treatment scenarios. We demonstrate that the causal structures and effects learned from accident reports reveal the causal mechanism within the PSM system. A total of 20 significant causal relationships among single elements, nine significant causal relationships among element combinations, and several interesting PSM failure paths were identified. According to these causal patterns, the PSM effort will shift from the traditional "what to do" to "how to do it."

Prioritization of control measures in leakage scenario using Hendershot theory and FBWM-TOPSIS.

Currently, there is increasing concern about the safety and leakage of process industries. Therefore, the present study aims to prioritize control measures before and after the leakage scenario by using the Hendershot theory and MCDM techniques. In this study, two proactive and reactive layers were selected before and after leakage of tanks, respectively. Then, criteria and alternatives were selected to perform fuzzy TOPSIS (FTOPSIS) and find the best alternative based on the literature review and Hendershot approach. The linear model of the fuzzy Best-Worst method (FBWM) was constructed and resolved using Lingo 17 software. Subsequently, criteria were assigned weights based on thorough calculations of the inconsistency rate. The weight of study experts was equal to 0.25. The results of FBWM showed that the reliability index with a weight of 0.3727 was ranked first and the inconsistency rate ([Formula: see text]) was calculated to be equal to 0.040. Inherent Safety Design (ISD) (0.899) and passive safety (0.767) also ranked first before and after tank leaks, respectively. Using the FBWM method leads to fewer pairwise comparisons and at the same time more stability. Although ISD and passive strategies are more valid and strict, elements of all strategies are necessary for a comprehensive process safety management program.

Assessing Safety Efficiency in China’s Provincial Construction Industry: Trends, Influences, and Implications

Ensuring safety is crucial for promoting the sustainable growth of the construction industry. Assessing safety efficiency is of significant importance for optimizing safety management processes and improving the safety environment. However, the current mainstream methods for evaluating safety efficiency have limitations such as ignoring non-desired outputs and slack variables, the efficiency values being limited to the (0, 1) range, and a narrow perspective. To address these shortcomings, this study focuses on the characteristics of the construction industry and introduces the Super-SBM model and Malmquist index into the assessment of safety efficiency in the construction industry. The study analyzes the evolution characteristics of safety efficiency from both static and dynamic perspectives. Furthermore, using panel quantile regression models, the study identifies the factors influencing safety efficiency and analyzes their heterogeneity. Analyzing panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2015 to 2021, the results show that the overall safety efficiency of the construction industry in China is relatively low, with noticeable spatial clustering characteristics. Provinces in the eastern and central regions exhibit higher levels of construction safety efficiency. The Malmquist index demonstrates a declining trend, with technical efficiency being the primary factor limiting the improvement of safety efficiency in construction. Factors such as per capita GDP, urbanization rate, committed contract amounts, and the number of professionals engaged in survey and design, as well as engineering supervision, have an impact on construction safety efficiency, and the effects of these variables vary across different quantile levels of safety efficiency. This research can assist decision-makers in gaining a better understanding of the safety conditions in different regions of the construction industry. It can also assist in developing customized policies to enhance the health and safety environment, thereby promoting the stable development of the construction industry.

Application of natural language processing for spill reduction in an exploration and production company

Spill reduction is a key focus for exploration and production (E&P) companies to protect people, the environment, and to maintain oil production. Learning from previous incidents enable companies to identify ways to lower the severity and frequency of spills. Root cause failure analysis (RCFA) is a key element in process safety management, and this is often focused on high severity incidents because of the time required to properly conduct the analysis. Incidents that have lower severity occur more frequently, but typically less time and resources are spent analyzing these events. Learning from lower severity, high frequency events can be useful in improving process safety programs and reduce spill frequency and impacts because the data set is more representative of the big picture. Natural language processing (NLP) is applied to identify causes and contributing factors of spills and leaks associated with E&P activity to reduce the frequency and severity of these events. Reviewing incident reports allow us to identify trends and areas of improvement, and NLP can be used to process the data quickly and improve data quality. Incident reports are typically free text that includes a description and cause of the event. One challenge with free-text descriptions is that further analysis and interpretation is needed in order to effectively analyze, trend, and learn from the available data. In addition, identifying the causes and contributing factors of a spill accurately can be time intensive. Two natural language processing methods, rule-based entity extraction and a machine learning model approach have been utilized to analyze a greater number of incident reports, which enables us to pinpoint causes of leaks, reduce the frequency of spills, and mitigate the impact of these events. This paper presents the challenges associated with learning from incident reports, particularly spills, and offers solutions that natural language processing can provide to improve data quality and contribute to spill reduction efforts in the context of an exploration and production company.

An Empirical Evaluation of a New Heuristic Method for Identifying Safety Improvement Sites on Rural Highways: An Oregon Case Study

Road safety is considered one of the fundamental factors for sustainable mobility, which requires establishing effective highway safety management programs and processes. Identifying safety improvement sites (network screening) is a critical step in the state roadway safety programs. The overall effectiveness of these programs largely relies on the robustness of the network screening method in identifying sites with high potential for safety improvements. This study investigates the network screening performance of a new proposed methodology that employs heuristic scoring schemes to account for roadway and roadside characteristics, crash history, and traffic exposure. The new method, originally proposed for use on rural low-volume roads, is simplistic in that it does not require exact and detailed information on traffic and geometric characteristics and can still be applied in the absence of crash data. The performance evaluation is conducted using a sample of 1495 miles of rural two-lane highway segments in Oregon. The effectiveness of the proposed method is assessed using observed crash history and compared to the well-established Empirical Bayes method as a reference. The effect of traffic level on the performance of the proposed method was evaluated using separate analyses for lower and higher traffic volume segments. The study findings indicate that the effectiveness of the proposed method in identifying sites with potential safety improvements is overall high and slightly exceeded that of the more sophisticated and data-intensive Empirical Bayes method. When data were stratified by traffic volume, the proposed method was found to be more effective for lower volume roads; however, the Empirical Bayes method outperformed the proposed method for higher volume roads.

Model of the process safety management system at an airline

The purpose of the process safety management system is to identify hazard factors and develop a set of methods to prevent injuries at an airline, occupational illness, material costs in case of damage to property and the environment. The analysis of the structure of occupational pathology depending on the factors of the production environment and the working process for the period 2013–2022 shows that the percentage of diseases associated with the impact of production physical factors for this period remains at the same level. This fact, in turn, confirms the relevance of the chosen study. Analysis and identification of the current production situation is necessary to assess the impact of adverse production factors. In this study, a new approach to the mathematical model for a process safety management system is implemented. Mathematical modeling allows a deeper understanding of the nature of certain phenomena and to obtain information about the real situation, which in turn stimulates the development of new scientific problems and methods of solving them, and is also the basis for choosing specific solutions for the implementation of certain projects. The successful implementation of strategies in order to create a process safety system for a flexible monitoring and management structure depends on how effective its functional structure is; this provision is explained by the fundamental nature of the tasks that are solved at the management stage. The article discusses the theoretical statements concerning mathematical modeling. When creating the model, the apparatus of abstract algebra-set theory – was used. The model developed in the course of the study makes it possible to introduce a model of the process safety management system into the activities of aviation enterprises.

Corrosion Risk for Process Safety in the Chemical Industry

The aim of this work is to analyze how corrosion risk management influences process safety. Both issues occupy an important niche in the chemical industry. Corrosion risk management includes identifying, analyzing, assessing, and managing corrosion hazards. Process safety is a discipline that focuses on preventing fires, explosions, and accidental releases at chemical process facilities. Corrosion can cause all these detrimental events. 
 There is much literature about both topics, corrosion risk, and process safety, separately, but there are nearly no research works concerning intersection and influence.
 The level of corrosion failure and its consequences, defining corrosion risk, may be different: the leak of crude oil, natural gas, water, liquid and gaseous hazardous chemicals, fire, explosion, damages, deterioration of the environment, injuries, and death of people and animals. Due to the biological and psychological properties of human nature, we are unlikely to exclude human mistakes.
 We should pay significant attention to education, dissemination of information, knowledge transfer, collaboration, and communication. Correct corrosion risk management gives rise to the improvement of process safety at stages of design, fabrication, implementation, erection, service, and maintenance of equipment and constructions in the chemical industry.
 For this realization, specific corrosion mitigation strategies and technologies are described. They are successfully implemented in the chemical industry. It shows how corrosion management and process safety management can be better integrated into practice.
 The future consideration of the prognosis of corrosion risk with process safety is connected with corrosion modeling. Limitations and challenges of such a forecast are discussed too.
 Special educational and training programs are developed to help engineers, scientists, professionals, students, and managers learn about corrosion science and engineering

Analysis of Accidents in Petroleum and Chemical Industries

This study determined the critical risk factors that influence the risk of major accidents in petroleum and chemical industries. The retrospective study assessed five iconic accidents using the tripod beta analysis methodology. These failures were aggregated into critical risk factors for these major accidents. The findings of this study revealed empirically that there are broadly five critical risk factors that influence the risk of major accidents: (i) design flaws, (ii) site process safety management, (iii) barrier management / control, (iv) operating procedures, and (v) process safety culture. These findings highlight that major accident risks can accumulate “dangerous” from the impairment of safety-critical barriers and that the operators of petroleum and chemical facilities may be blind-sided to the cumulative risk of the impairments. The findings also highlight the need for a proactive risk assessment tool with the capability to check the health of safety-critical barriers on a real time basis, in an operating plant. The use of Tripod Beta as a tool in accident causation analysis is recommended

Construction Safety Management Systems Using Promethee Method

Construction safety management is at the construction site safe working environment security to ensure to control activities a method that can be used. Planning and design taken during the process results of the construction project when the protection is largely affected. Construction and demolition sites, labor protection, and health hazard the result is unique hazards and risks causing professional safety and health management protection of systems organizations and health hazards continue to detect and remove help, incident possibilities reduce, to regulations compliance and risk-reduction implement interventions. Construction industry sites employee health and safety very dangerous to work with one of the workplace environments. Manufacturing processes, labor intensive characteristics, and occupational accidents due to the construction industry the greater the risk, the greater it is scale of financial losses, and the worst the company results from reputation. Construction in the construction industry site security is very important this is an important requirement mostly on project sites is ignored. Correct without safety regulations, hazards of the construction industry and because of the dynamic environment, staff small and large are prone to accidents. Security management systematic risk management in detection, and with it related risks can also help control, at the same time this control activities of the construction site useful in aiding protection it promises to be. Safety management process roughly the following steps outlines: planning related to the workplace at the stage identity hazards and accident or to avoid property damage ensure construction safety appropriate restrictions for making and advance the determination of the step. Accidents possible actions early detection, safe practices followed and safe conditions whether maintained monitoring of verification work. Neighbors are public and private protection of assets at all levels of the organization effective communication implementation and promotion. Safe operating modes attractive to use regularly with incentive programs safety education and training providing. Constant professionalism health and safety compliance with regulations. PROMETHEEE is a priority for assessment enrichment Ranking system and its interactive help Descriptive complementary geometric analysis known as PROMETHEEE methods. In this, The PROMETHEEE method is the best solution from the analysis The shorter the distance and the longer the negative-ideal solution Determines the solution with the distance, but of these distances, The comparison was not considered significant. Alternative is Safety Commitment by Senior Management, Competency Profiles, Safety Climate, Project Management, Safety Requirements and Incentives, Safe Working Environment/ Conditions. Evaluation preference is Government building, Private building, Civil engineering, Industrial building. From the result it is seen that Government building is got the first rank where as is the Industrial building is having the lowest rank. Government building is ranked first and industrial building is ranked lowest.

Analysis of the progress of chemical process safety management in China

AbstractProcess safety management (PSM) is a proven and effective management approach that has been validated through practical experience. In recent years, China has been actively exploring advanced PSM methods and has implemented several regulations and standards related to chemical PSM. This article begins with a review of chemical PSM development in China and the United States. It then conducts a comparative analysis of the quantity and content of elements in the PSM systems of both countries. Based on the analysis results, suggestions for improving PSM in China are presented.

Implementation of Food Safety Management System and its Effects on Business Performance in an Educational Institution Restaurant.

Food safety standard implementation is fundamental to the prevention, detection, and management of foodborne risks as well as the realization of food security, protection of health, and economic sustainability of food manufacturing, processing, and distributing enterprises. The global food safety standard, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) is one such instrument deployed to promote food safety in the hospitality industry worldwide. A higher educational institution in Kenya introduced HACCP ten years ago as part of its ongoing quality improvement policy to gain the advantages of implementing the standard in the food business, and as a reaction to incidents of food contamination in its restaurant that raised concerns among the customers and the leadership. Food contaminations were experienced even after the implementation of the HACCP food safety program, which brought to the fore the pitfalls that occur due to deviations from the HACCP plans and loss of control that expose consumers to food hazards. Despite the introduction of HACCP in the institution’s restaurant in 2014, there have been incidents of lapses in food quality among which was a suspected food contamination resulting in undesired customer experiences. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of the implementation of HACCP food safety management processes on food and beverage safety and business performance at the institution’s restaurant. The specific objectives of the study were to assess the implementation of the HACCP food safety management system in food production and sales; assess the customer perceptions and confidence levels in the quality and safety of food and beverages served, and to evaluate the effects of the HACCP food safety management programme in the delivery of safe food and the general business performance at the institution restaurant. The study design was exploratory and involved a survey of restaurant customers using a structured questionnaire, and interview of key informants using an interview guide. The researcher also observed food chain processes using a checklist. The study population was primarily the management and staff of the institution restaurant as well as the client population comprising students, instructors, administrative staff, institution managers, and regulatory agency representatives. The data obtained from primary sources was complemented with secondary data. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and results were presented in tables, graphs, and pie-charts while qualitative data were analysed thematically. The key findings of the study were that despite some challenges and complexities in the implementation of HACCP, this food safety management system had significantly reduced the incidence of food contamination in the facility. Further, based on customer perceptions and feedback, the institution had registered high customer satisfaction scores (CSAT) and customer retention rates (CRR). In addition, the institution was able to generate sustained and increasing revenues and profits for the institution. The study therefore concluded that HACCP is an important instrument for promoting and safeguarding food safety in the hospitality industry and an important tool for building customer confidence and generating revenues for food businesses. The key recommendation from this study is that the institution should address identified issues of space, equipment, staff, and supplier knowledge and skills that compromise conformity with HACCP requirements.

Concept of hazard identification for RAMS specification

In parallel with the dynamic development of rail transport in terms of vehicle design, control systems, infrastructure issues, the development of processes and procedures in the area of safety management must also progress. This growing awareness was confirmed, among other things, by harmonising the content of the regulations on railway safety and interoperability, the safety certification of railway undertakings and the definition of the tasks and roles of national safety authorities. In effect, this was to enable the development of a single European railway area. An implementation tool that allows for a systematic approach to safety management processes and that enables the above requirements to be met is, among other things, RAMS analyses. A key step in the safety management process for specifying RAMS is hazard identification, which is particularly highlighted in PN EN 50126-2:2018 through the holistic model for risk assessment and control of railway system hazards (hourglass model). It places the hazard identification process in two stages, i.e. in the early development stage of the analysis (similar to other known risk management models) and in the hazard control stage. This positioning alone indicates the importance of the hazard identification process. On the comprehensiveness and detail of its implementation depends the validity of the final outcome of the RAMS analysis. The development of such a process for real technical facilities in a way that is consistent with the needs of RAMS analyses and, at the same time, ensures that satisfactory results of these analyses are achieved, has become the subject of this article.

Dynamic safety management model for rail traffic control

In rail transport, increasing emphasis has been placed in recent years on improving safety levels. Therefore, more requirements and legal documents require risk analyses to be carried out at various stages of investment implementation. One of the leading legal documents that introduce the obligation to monitor risk is Directive (EU) 2016/798 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2016 on railway safety and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 402/2013 of 30 April 2013 on the common safety method for risk evaluation and assessment and re-pealing Regulation (EC) No 352/2009. Additionally, for traffic control systems, the requirements of CENELEC standards are mandatory. These documents present the subject of safety level and show its relation with the safety targets defined in the railway system, including the different ways of measuring them. Methods are also available to analyse the safety level of railway system components in detail, both at the level of individual components, subsystems, and the whole national railway system. However, after conducting an in-depth analysis of the literature, the authors of the article indicate that these methods are not consistent with each other. There is no method defined to present the direct relation of the safety level of the components of the system on the achievement of safety targets for the national railway system. The research and analysis aimed to define an approach, a method that would meet all legal requirements but at the same time would allow to clearly and reliably determine the safety level of the railway system. To define a unified approach, the authors of the article propose to develop a model of a dynamic object - a railway system safety model, which has also been verified on accurate safety data in rail transport in recent years. This model organises the process of safety management on railways and allows to determine values influencing the achievement of safety targets on an assumed level.

A flow-directed minimal path sets method for success path planning and performance analysis

Emergency operation plans are indispensable elements for effective process safety management especially when unanticipated events occur under extreme situations. In the paper, a synthesis framework is proposed for the integration success path planning and performance analysis. Within the synthesis framework, success path planning is implemented through flow-directed signal tracing, renaming and reconstruction from a complete collection of Minimal Path Sets (MPSs) that are obtained using graph traversal search on GO-FLOW model diagram. The performance of success paths is then evaluated and prioritized according to the task complexity and probability calculation of MPSs for optimum action plans identification. Finally, an Auxiliary Feed Water System of Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR-AFWS) is taken as an example system to demonstrate the flow-directed MPSs search method for success path planning and performance analysis. It is concluded that the synthesis framework is capable of providing procedural guidance for emergency response and safety management with optimal success path planning under extreme situations.

Implement a Process Safety Management System Based on the Identification of the most Critical Factors in the Establishment of Safety Programs, Using Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process

It is essential to identify the critical success factors due to their direct effects on the establishment of safety programs. These factors should also be prioritized to facilitate the establishment of process safety management (PSM) system in process industries. The fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) was employed in this study to weight the critical success factors in implementing and executing safety programs for establishing a process safety management system. For this purpose, a few prominent process safety management models were reviewed, and the critical success factors of safety programs establishment were extracted. After that, a questionnaire was developed and distributed among the experts. The fuzzy analytic hierarchy process was then adopted to calculate the weights of factors for prioritization. This study aimed to determine the most effective factors in implementing and improving process safety management systems in process industries. Other factors will be effected in establishing process safety management in subsequent priorities, one after another.

Development and application of process safety competency framework in agroindustry: A case study

AbstractEvents in industries have shown that a lack of process safety culture has an important contribution in driving the site to fail. The culture is composed of the values, competencies, and attitudes that drive the organization to success. Thus, competency is a core step in developing a proper foundation to implement process safety management (PSM). In the food industry, the competencies related to process safety are not as well developed as in other types of industries. Although the industry has several information and training programs on process safety, such information needs to be organized into a framework to better direct people and assure standardization and sustainment. This case study presents the proposal for a process safety competency framework with the goal to provide the knowledge and skills necessary for people at different levels in the organization to be successful in managing hazards. The competencies are defined in a way to make the contents assertive with the roles and levels of expertise also using the 70%, 20%, 10% methodology of learning and andragogy. As an initial result of this work, we could verify an increase in the leading process safety event registration, which shows an increase of awareness and culture.

Total Quality Management, Safety and Stakeholders Satisfaction: Model for Healthcare Administration

Total Quality Management, Safety and Stakeholders Satisfaction: Model for Healthcare Administration

Implementation guide for process safety management

AbstractA general guide how to implement process safety management (PSM) is missing in the literature. This article provides general procedure to implement PSM which any industry in underdeveloped, developing and developed countries can adopt to start PSM implementation. PSM implementation can be initiated through the proposed framework consisting of four steps: (1) PSM introduction, (2) Assigning departmental wise PSM duties, (3) Trainings and (4) Audits and improvements. Trainings include process hazard analysis (PHA) using Integrated What‐If/HAZOP analysis, quantitative risk assessments using ALOHA or equivalent software, PSM forms developments and other trainings. In a case study, ammonia release is estimated and quantified using ALOHA. Nine various forms for PSM are required to be developed for industry implementing PSM. Various trainings should be arranged including specific learning outcomes and few examples are discussed in this article. An audit scheme is proposed for any new industry implementing PSM. PSM elements implementation sequence is discussed. New established industries can adopt this procedure to implement PSM following suggested forms and sequences, which can help engineers in understanding PSM implementation. This PSM implementation proposed framework is being implemented in the fertilizer industry and caustic industry.

Methodology for Implementation of Process Safety Management into Experiment Life Cycle

The presented work deals with experiments in laboratories that solve practical problems. Each experi-ment is a process that takes place under certain conditions, which significantly influence its results. Re-sults of experiment are further influenced by the quality of: inputs; technical and cyber equipment; con-trol; and the knowledge, experience and skills of personnel. Therefore, experiments supporting the prac-tice must be carried out using a methodology that ensures that the results always are of required quality. Process safety management, which is based on management of risks connected with process, has proven itself in practice. Therefore, we apply its principles into experiment life cycle. Paper shows methodology of process safety managements in experiments and its main part, i.e. prototypal checklist for evaluation of both, the partial risks and the integrated risk of experiment.