Process Safety Management Research Articles

Building urban gas process safety management (UG-PSM) system: Based on root cause analysis with 160 urban gas accidents in China

Urban safety is significantly impacted by the complexity of urban gas accidents. Although China has put forward the goal of “zero fatalities in accidents” for urban gas, unfortunately, the root causes of the unsound safety culture and imperfect safety management system of urban gas enterprises remain unresolved. Therefore, statistical analysis and 24Model analysis of 160 urban gas accidents in mainland China were performed to investigate the proximate causes of the accidents and the current situation of urban gas safety. The CCPS's risk-based process safety elements were used to identify potential deficiencies in the current urban gas process safety management (UG-PSM). During the analysis, it was observed that insufficient implementation of concealed danger investigation and rectification accounted for 76%, which is the primary proximate cause of urban gas accidents. Stakeholder outreach is the most under-represented competency in urban gas safety management. Based on the results, a novel framework for the UG-PSM system was constructed, and the theory of urban gas safety management was further improved. Furthermore, we evaluated the matching degree between UG-PSM elements and the existing measures of the government, urban gas associations, third-party organizations, and urban gas enterprises. Finally, we analyzed the feasibility, challenges, and development directions of the UG-PSM system. This study establishes a foundation for researchers and practitioners in the future research and practice of urban gas process safety and provides theoretical guidance for preventing high-incidence accidents of urban gas in China.

Healthcare professional’s knowledge and awareness of the medication error reporting systems in the Kuwaiti hospitals

Abstract Objective. A survey was conducted to explore healthcare professional’s (HCPs) knowledge and attitude towards medication errors reporting processes and systems used in their local hospitals. Methods. There were 696 respondents and the observational survey showed the diverse perspectives of HCPs from diverse professions (doctors, pharmacists and nurses) who are at different stages in their career. The survey results highlighted the deficiencies in the medication safety management process, including the follow-up on witnessed or discovered medication errors, the effectiveness of the used reporting systems for medication errors, the standardisation of electronic prescribing software, and the training of HCPs at the six hospitals on medication safety. Key finding. Only 46% of the surveyed stated that their hospital had a mechanism in place for reporting medication errors and 60.7% of the participants agreed that they would submit reports provided the system is not used for performance management and only those need to know will be able to identify their name. Regarding prescription writing, 51% of surveyed HCPs said they utilise electronic prescribing software; however, the overall usage rate of electronic prescribing systems was 49%, with handwritten prescriptions remaining the option used in the majority of the time. In terms of HCP training, 20% of the survey respondents said they did not receive any instruction or direction in the hospitals on pharmacovigilance and patient safety. Conclusions. The Kuwaiti MoH should build a national electronic incident reporting system and establish standardised rules and protocols for incident reporting that is to be anonymous and of compulsory use by all government and private hospitals.

…And the regulator clapped! New approaches to maximizing worker engagement in process safety management

AbstractMany industrial sites struggle to achieve consistently strong business performance in Process Safety Management (PSM). For these work sites, leading indicators may show that there is good participation in process safety activities, but unfortunately, the process safety incident rate remains above targets. Oftentimes, these sites must be very reactive as incident follow‐up consumes much of their available resources and incident avoidance continues to be elusive. This paper discusses new approaches used to break free from lackluster PSM performance. These new approaches are designed to maximize worker engagement which in turn will boost the culture and lead to a step‐change improvement in PSM performance. The new approaches incorporate the Swiss cheese model at the center of a framework that is easily understood by all workers. Workers' knowledge of PSM and how it pertains to their specific role is then strengthened through routine sharing of external events. Workers are then encouraged to apply learnings to their work and they are rewarded for breakthroughs in hazard identification or mitigation. These approaches have not only received applause from regulators but have also been successfully used to break out of mediocrity and attain “best‐in‐class” PSM performance, as measured by API RP 754 criteria.

Evolution of process safety performance measurement, reporting and management

Beach Energy Limited (referred as Beach Energy or Beach) is an ASX-listed exploration and production company headquartered in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1961, Beach produces oil and gas from five onshore and offshore basins across Australia and New Zealand. During its most recent growth phase, Beach added a number of assets to its portfolio that were originally developed and operated by companies with different management systems, standards and reporting requirements. Over the past 5 years Beach has been – and continues to be – on a journey of learning, developing and refining its systems and standards for reporting process safety performance and integrating these within a ‘one Beach’ philosophy. This paper describes the current stage of this evolution in measuring, reporting and managing process safety performance at Beach, presents some of the key learnings to date, in addition to outlining the next steps Beach is taking on this journey. The paper covers the following: (1) experience with IOGP RP 456 Tier KPI model and current main KPIs in use; (2) application to projects, drilling campaigns and operating assets; (3) challenges in gathering data and event classification; (4) importance of getting safety critical equipment selection right; (5) communicating large and complex KPIs to a varied audience; (6) learning and improving process safety performance and systems based on KPIs; (7) new approaches to reporting health of process safety barriers aligned to IOGP RP544 categories using simplified bowtie Major Accident Event dashboards; and (8) integration of process safety management within the Beach Operations Excellence Management System. The key conclusions are that measuring process safety performance requires dedicated effort and consensus across all stakeholders on the most appropriate way to measure performance. Reporting needs a positive and collaborative culture to have the right impact. Managing performance must be based on objective evidence and careful analysis of the data. Achieving effective and efficient process safety measurement, reporting and management is a multi-year journey of continual improvement.

Young professional's integration framework in process safety management, based on the lean principles

AbstractYoung professionals (YPs) must increasingly take part in the systematic changes that respond to the requirements of modern engineering, especially in areas such as Process Safety, where the traditional involvement approach may be insufficient due to practical biases of leadership. These leaders usually fulfill their function as process and culture makers but rarely provide specific strategies and tools that enable incoming professionals to become an active part of the continuous improvement processes inherent to management. With the goal of maximizing the impact of YPs on process safety, the paper offers a brief integration framework with specific recommendations aimed at driving continuous improvement processes at the strategic, technical, and operational levels, based on the principles for managing ideas and information associated with lean, using specific methods such as active Muda reduction, DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) frame management objectives, and a culture‐first mindset that puts the human factor as central to the management of Process Safety, seeking a transversal orientation toward efficiency by adding value to the process and its continuous improvement.

Improving process safety for the operation of Major Hazard Facilities

The discipline of process safety management has proven to be a valuable tool for assisting operators of Major Hazard Facilities (MHF) in focussing on the critically important ‘few’, with a heightened level of scrutiny than that of the ‘many’ lesser critical yet still important elements of a process system. This discipline attracts much oversight, discussion, and enthusiasm from many areas within and outside asset operations teams. Major Accident Hazards may vary in severity and probability throughout the life cycle of existing assets, it is, therefore, important to review these periodically. Clear purpose and definition of Safety Critical Elements (SCE), and in some cases Integrity Critical Elements (ICE), along with intelligent rationalisation of these to reflect the items of legitimate criticality, will allow higher precision and clarity, leading to higher confidence and an improved ability to manage genuine process safety risk. Further improvements can be made through real-time and near-time reporting through risk visualisation bowtie diagrams to ensure hazards can be managed to As Low as Reasonably Practicable (ALARP) and their status made visible to enable the most effective prioritisation of work which prioritises restoration of the most compromised threat and consequence barriers first.

Exploring fast-inferring in transformer backboned model for fatigue crack detection and propagation tracking for proton exchange membrane

The research on degradation and failure of proton exchange membrane (PEM) is the basis on cell failure related research. Automatic crack propagation tracking is required to make it possible to provide detailed data of PEM fatigue behavior. However, the special characteristics of PEM require higher performance on local-global attention and noise filtering. To meet this requirement as well as fast inferring, CrackTracker, a Transformer-backboned model, was proposed by introducing a nonlinear projection, developing a new channel-self attention and a new training strategy. Detailed comparisons with four most widely used models on three datasets demonstrated the superiority of CrackTracker in accuracy, efficiency, and generalization performance. The inferring latency on a CPU server of CrackTracker is 16.5 times faster than the slowest one but its Dice coefficient is 3.2% higher than the lowest one. The positional-embedding free design allows CrackTracker flexible to images size. The practical applications on the published X-ray CT images of PEM cracks show that CrackTR can accurately detect the number, area, and segment of cracks in fuel cells, which is very helpful in process safety management. CrackTracker provides a new perspective in network design, especially for industrial applications where sample size and computational cost are tightly limited.

Pluralisme juridique, sécurité industrielle et globalisation : une étude de cas dans la chimie

Cet article vise à mettre en évidence les nombreuses frontières au sein desquelles ou par-delà lesquelles s’organise la gouvernance de la sécurité industrielle dans une entreprise de chimie fine. Les acteurs de cette filiale française d’un groupe américain sont soumis à plusieurs réglementations et normes au niveau national, mais aussi supranational, notamment européen. Ils doivent les mettre en œuvre dans un contexte sociotechnique particulier impliquant des adaptations. Ces ajustements sont souvent l’objet de négociations variées entre les acteurs de l’usine considérée, avec les acteurs du groupe et les autorités de contrôle. Les acteurs de l’usine doivent aussi composer avec l’approche de gestion des risques développée aux États-Unis et traduite dans des standards de production et de sécurité (procédures, outils) pour réguler de manière de plus en plus homogène la sécurité dans les divers sites répartis autour du monde. Ce texte invite donc à une présentation empirique du pluralisme juridique.

Dynamic risk-based process design and operational optimization via multi-parametric programming

We present a dynamic risk-based process design and multi-parametric model predictive control optimization approach for real-time process safety management in chemical process systems. A dynamic risk indicator is used to monitor process safety performance considering fault probability and severity, as an explicit function of safety–critical process variables deviation from nominal operating conditions. Process design-aware risk-based multi-parametric model predictive control strategies are then derived which offer the advantages to: (i) integrate safety–critical variable bounds as path constraints, (ii) control risk based on multivariate process dynamics under disturbances, and (iii) provide model-based risk propagation trend forecast. A dynamic optimization problem is then formulated, the solution of which can yield optimal risk control actions, process design values, and/or real-time operating set points. The potential and effectiveness of the proposed approach to systematically account for interactions and trade-offs of multiple decision layers toward improving process safety and efficiency are showcased in a real-world example, the safety–critical control of a continuous stirred tank reactor at T2 Laboratories.

The influence of Work Health Safety on Australia’s military aviation regulatory framework

In 2016, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) Defence Aviation Safety Regulations (DASR) came into being, in part to harmonise with the Australian Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHSA). Defence aviation is too complex to be regulated completely by Work Health Safety (WHS) legislation; therefore, amplification is required to ensure safe and legal outcomes. The DASR provides the necessary amplification, managing aviation safety through technical and operational airworthiness. ADF technical airworthiness is based on the European Military Airworthiness Requirements (EMAR), with an overlaid Aviation Safety Management System (ASMS) modelled by the International Civil Aviation Organization. Australian WHS legislation directly influences Safety Risk Management (SRM), mandating how hazards and risks must be controlled by duty holders in all industries. For ADF aviation, this means a shift from a standards-based SRM to a legislative-based SRM, culminating in implementing a seven-step process integrated into all risk management activities. This paper examines how WHS legislation can directly influence the safety regulation of a high-risk industry such as military aviation. Further, safety management from a military perspective is a novel area of research, as military and civil safety management have historically been non-aligned and disparate. This research helps close the knowledge gap and offers an opportunity to disseminate and explore military safety management processes resulting from changes to the overarching WHS legislation. The authors believe such insights may prove useful to other states transitioning to an EMAR-based regulatory structure.

Process safety management lessons learned from a fire and explosion accident caused by a liquefied petroleum gas leak in an aromatics reforming unit in Taiwan

A severe fire and explosion accident was caused by a liquefied petroleum gas leak in Taiwan in 2019. This accident resulted in the loss of approximately US$3.5 billion in output value due to a one-and-a-half-year shutdown after the accident; however, no casualties were recorded at the accident scene. An analysis of the accident pipelines demonstrated that the pipeline leak had been caused by hydrochloric acid corrosion. Cause analysis based on the accident timeline, fault tree analysis, and causal factor charting indicated inadequacies in five elements of process safety management (PSM) namely mechanical integrity (MI), management of change, emergency planning and response, process hazard analysis (PHA), and process safety information (PSI) as the root causes of the accident. Furthermore, insufficient PSI (i.e., a lack of comprehensive understanding regarding corrosion mechanisms) was deemed to have been the core problem leading to the accident. This accident revealed common shortcomings that are often overlooked in PSM implementation in Taiwan; thus, the present research can serve as a vital reference for improving PSM programs in Taiwan.

Civil aviation safety risk intelligent early warning model based on text mining and multi-model fusion

Aviation unsafe events often lead to major casualties and property losses. Aviation safety risk intelligent early warning is an important means to ensure the safe and reliable operation of aircraft. Therefore, an intelligent early warning model is urgently needed to quickly predict the risk level and identify potential risks to take targeted measures to realize the active management of safety. To realize the above process, the text mining method is used to extract key risk information from unsafe event reports and input it into the intelligent early warning model to predict its risk level, further constructing the priority processing index to achieve a rapid decision, and finally realize the intelligent safety management process of features extraction to early warning levels identification and then to priority processing. First, domain dictionary and Chinese stop word list are constructed to process the massive text data in the unsafe event’s report. Further, TF-IDF and TextRank are fused to extract key risk information and convert it into feature vectors. Second, the IHT algorithm is used to alleviate the sample class imbalance problem. After that, input the balanced risk information into an improved stacking multi-model fusion algorithm to accurately identify the early warning level and improve the level of active management and control via priority processing index ranking. The effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method are demonstrated by testing the unsafe event text data of some aircraft maintenance companies and airlines, which promotes the practical application value of text mining technology in the aviation field.

AIRPORT SECURITY MANAGEMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF FIRE PROTECTION ON THE EXAMPLE OF CHOPIN AIRPORT IN WARSAW

Airport security management is a rapidly evolving process which results in new regulations,new procedures or equipment and the acquisition of new skills for aviation personnel. The fireprotection of Chopin Airport in Warsaw serves as an example intended to show a pattern ofactivities of entities responsible for safety that clearly strive for perfection, and are comprised bythe safety management process, which can be replicated by other institutions. The essence of thearticle is to identify the key factors that determine the safety of an airport on the example ofChopin Airport in Warsaw. The article presents the results of own research. The analysis of expertinterviews conducted with airport personnel responsible for security and officers of the StateFire Service showed the reality of airport security management from the perspective of the entityresponsible for it. New directions of change and areas for improvement were thus acknowledged.The result of the interviews is the development of the authors concept of the improvement of toolsused within the Safety Management System at Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport.

Safety Risk Assessment and Management of Panzhihua Open Pit (OP)-Underground (UG) Iron Mine Based on AHP-FCE, Sichuan Province, China

In order to prevent accident cases and improve safety in the mining industry, a safety risk assessment and management process is needed to identify and respond to high-risk hazards in mines. This study aims to investigate the main safety risks factors influencing the typology of accidents in the Panzhihua OP-UG iron ore mine with the concept of minimizing them, reducing injuries and fatalities, and improving prevention policies. A methodology based on the analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation (AHP-FCE) is applied to conduct a study on the assessment and evaluation of mine safety risks. Upon investigating the safety situation at the mine site, 85 risk factors were identified, of which 49 factors were considered to be non-threatening and therefore compatible with existing control measures. The remaining potential hazards, altogether 36 factors, were ultimately categorized into six major specific groups. A mine safety index system and safety risk evaluation model are established to support the evaluation process. The results show that the overall risk level of the Panzhihua OP-UG iron mine is at a medium level with a score of 86.5%. Appropriate risk management measures were recommended for each risk factor from the perspectives of theoretical analysis, safety system optimization of mine technology, disaster prevention and control of slope failure, etc. Finally, this research serves as a great industrial value and academic significance to provide technical support for the safety production of mining enterprises. Hence, the FCE method can serve as a technique to accurately evaluate the impact of iron mine risk.

Performing Hazard Analyses and Setting Triggers for Reevaluation in Lab-Scale Chemical Reactions

Laboratory chemical synthesis research typically lacks the preplanned hazard responses found in production-scale industrial laboratories. Chemical safety management is a known challenge in education-based facilities, which is concerning for academic and national laboratory environments working with inexperienced student researchers. At the Molecular Foundry, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) user facility, a chemical safety management form has been developed that follows DOE’s Integrated Safety Management (ISM) process, which evaluates the risks and hazards associated with all forms of work. An ISM form for chemical synthesis is described here in detail. It is regularly used to guide chemical safety discussions between researchers and supervisors, to plan accident responses, and to establish triggers, at which point a reevaluation of the work is needed. The form makes it straightforward to know what limits researchers may work within and makes it clear which procedure changes will require a new safety assessment and discussion before work continues. The ISM form for synthesis is being successfully used in three fields of chemistry: Inorganic, Organic, and Biological. The form has also been adapted for liquid sample preparation in electron microscopy. Upper management, supervisors, students, and general users are engaged in this process. It is hoped that sharing this knowledge will enable educational institutions and other laboratories to develop similar methods to help researchers and supervisors understand the hazards as well as the working limits of any protocol, helping researchers to work more independently and safely within the laboratory.

Shift Work and Sleep Disturbance in the Oil Industry.

Rotating shift work is common in high-hazard industries, despite documented associations with sleep disturbance and impairment. In the oil industry, where rotating and extended shift schedules are used to staff safety-sensitive positions, work intensification and increasing overtime rates have been broadly documented over the last few decades. Research on the impacts of these work schedules on sleep and health has been limited for this workforce. We examined sleep duration and quality among rotating shift workers in the oil industry and explored associations between schedule characteristics, sleep, and health outcomes. We recruited hourly refinery workers from the West and Gulf Coast oil sector members of the United Steelworkers union. Impaired sleep quality and short sleep durations were common and associated with health and mental health outcomes common among shift workers. Shortest sleep durations followed shift rotations. Early rise and start times were associated with shorter sleep duration and poorer sleep quality. Drowsiness and fatigue-related incidents were common. We observed lower sleep duration and quality and increased overtime in 12-hour rotating shift schedules. These long workdays with early start times may reduce available hours for quality sleep; here they were associated with reduced exercise and leisure activity which correlated with good sleep. This safety-sensitive population appears severely impacted by poor sleep quality, which has broader implications for process safety management. Later start times, slower rotation, and a reconsideration of two-shift schedules are interventions to consider for improving sleep quality among rotating shift workers.

The Survey And Perspective Of Human Factors Associated With Maintenance Activity

Maintenance is the work needed to keep plant and equipment in proper condition, and it is one of twenty elements of process safety management and the purpose of maintenance activities is to keep equipment in a good condition for performance during the operation process. However, ineffective maintenance may have a negative effect on performance. The consequence of ineffective maintenance can shorten the life of equipment or plant, can be harmful to workers who perform the maintenance tasks, and lead to accidents or incidents. Ineffective maintenance occurs as a result of many reasons, such as but not limited to human factors like complexity of maintenance task, poorly written maintenance procedure, fatigue and Organizational Factors such as poor experience, lack of training, lack of safety systems and barriers, and Poor health and safety culture. The aim of this study is to identify common human performance factors associated with maintenance and identify its influence on human error in aging oil and gas plants in the United Aarab Emirates. Five case studies are presented to identify human factors contributed to the accident during maintenance activities and to identify its linkage with human error, then survey strategy is used for data collection and a structured questionnaire is designed and distributed among people who involved in maintenance activities in UAE. The research concludes that understanding work procedures is influenced by the maintenance experience of the workers and communication between workers and management and safety culture has an influence on human error.

The perspective of leadership and management commitment in process safety management

ABSTRACT An effective safety leader is more than a job or position in an organisation. Safety leaders must understand and mitigate workplace risks and difficulties for themselves, their team and their organisation. One of the essential aspects of Process Safety Management (PSM) is that leaders and managers understand the qualities and safety behaviour of all chemicals utilised in the process. This paper emphasises that leaders and managers promote a positive safety culture by showing safety commitment; they have more influence to pave all activities while ensuring it is conducted safely within the organisation. Due to human characteristics, it may be challenging to obtain all ‘perfect’ leadership and management traits. But leadership is a skill that anyone can develop. Competency, empowerment, compliance, governance and dedication to safety are more important than leadership styles in a small organisation. The most exemplary leaders are articulate and can adapt their style to the situation.

Meta-Analysis of Studies on Accident Contributing Factors in the Greek Construction Industry

Occupational accidents, especially in the construction sector, are a worldwide phenomenon. There is a large and important collection of repeated studies at an international level, which has identified and categorized construction accident contributing factors in different countries individually. This paper is a quantitative meta-analysis of data from existing research that identifies and ranks a comprehensive list of the main factors contributing to occupational accidents in the construction sector in Greece. The methodology includes: (i) the identification of common factors through a systematic literature review and content analysis (ii) the categorization and development of a comprehensive accident factor breakdown structure and (iii) the evaluation of the importance of the common factors through statistical meta-analysis by calculating the overall ranking index (ORI). The results indicated that six out of the top ten contributing factors to construction site accidents are from the Occupational Risks category, only one from each of the Safety Culture, Worker Training Deficiencies, and Safety Equipment/Measures categories. The amalgamated insights of 25 Greek scientific studies are certain to be used to shape safety management processes by construction companies, clients, and safety policy decision makers.

The Concept of Introducing a Decision Support System into the Structure of the Vessel Traffic Management System

The paper deals with the problems of introducing an automated intelligent vessel passing system (AIVPS) into the navigation safety management process, which is a decision support system and is designed to automate the process of monitoring the movement of ships in the area of responsibility of the local ship traffic control system (VTS) and reducing the impact of the human factor on the safety of navigation. The work is based on the provisions of the engineering-cybernetic approach to conceptual research. Ac-cording to the engineering-cybernetic methodology, an effective synthesis is possible only with a comprehensive consideration of the entire hierarchical system as a whole and internal connections between its various subsystems. It has been established that in order to solve the set tasks, AIVPS should have the properties of an expert system. using not only a database, but also a knowledge base. To obtain AIVPS all the necessary static and dynamic information about the vessels for which the expert system will develop the optimal solution for safe passing, it is proposed to use the existing AIS system.