Making safety last

Industry has over the years responded to high profile accidents, such as Buncefield to Piper Alfa and Flixborough, by putting every conceivable aspect of process safety under the microscope and introducing measures and systems to ensure that this ‘could never happen again’.

That this approach hasn’t worked for the UK process industries can be seen from HSE data showing that potentially serious, loss-of-containment incidents are occurring in the UK on an almost weekly frequency.

The search for barriers to long-term process safety improvement - both by HSE and within the industry itself `- has now put the spotlight on the role of senior management in ensuring the safety of process facilities.

This has led to the development of a Process Safety Management (PSM) programme by skills bodies Cogent and the National Skills Academy Process Industries (NSAPI), working in collaboration with the Chemical Industries Association, UK Petroleum Industry Association the Institute of Chemical Engineers, trade union Unite, and the Health & Safety Executive.

Launched about six months ago, PSM essentially involves making all senior executives aware of their role in process safety. The NSAPI-led training they receive is then to provide a starting point towards them embedding a PSM culture within their organisations.

The PSM?programme is eventually expected to provide a benchmark for organisations to check that they are operating to top process safety standards across each and every department.

Among those who believe PSM could make a difference is HSE chair Judith Hackitt, who commented: “For the first time, I see something in place that gets people to make a commitment and has potential to be something that is sustained.

“We have been here before. People have said [process safety] is important, but over time a decay process sets in, other things take priority and it shifts from the agenda.”

But with 1,000 COMAH sites in the UK and with senior leadership in the industry [typically] changing on a three-four-year cycle, Hackitt believes that maintaining a commitment to process safety at senior management level will be difficult for the sector to achieve.

“Keeping all of the leaders, the financial directors and all the other people you put through this process, trained as that churn continues is a significant challenge,” Hackitt said at a recent London conference on PSM - organised by Cogent and NSAPI.

When it comes to involving employees elsewhere in the organisation, Hackitt suggested that rather than training what operators need to know that it is okay to raise concerns about safety, and that those concerns are going to get listened to and acted upon.

“Maybe it is training in how to express those concerns and reassurance that they are going to get listened to that is required rather than giving them the training that you think they may require,” she commented.

As a major producer of petrochemicals, including ethylene, ethylene oxide, phenol and acetone, INEOS operates a number of very high-hazard sites across its 60 sites worldwide, INEOS director Tom Crotty said at the London PSM conference.

As a single mistake could cost the company it’s license to operate, Crotty said PSM has to be everybody’s business at INEOS, from the chairman all the way through to every single plant operator.

Following the HSE recommendations to emerge from the Buncefield accident in 2005, INEOS put in place a process safety leadership (PSL) programme throughout the company. Every management team now goes through training to raise their understanding of PSM, according to Crotty.

The feedback from everybody, he reported, has been “why haven’t we done this before?” while many others said they had no idea that the had an influence on process safety.

This latter response, said Crotty, came particularly from people operating in financial roles, who thought they were far removed from these issues and didn’t have to worry about them: “But, of course, decisions that they take are every bit as impacting on process safety as the decisions taken by operators at the plant.

Fine line

Noting “the fine line we work at in these industries,” Crotty went on to note that applying metrics to PSM is more difficult than to other areas of safety, such as near misses, classifiable injuries or reportable incidents.

“But that is what we have to do. We spend a lot of time developing measurement systems that allow us to do this,” said Crotty, adding that INEOS is sharing knowledge in this area with other companies, via the NSAPI.

“We have no monopoly on good ideas,” commented Crotty. “There are good ideas all through this industry and we really need to share them and get them out there.”

But with just 65 of the 1000 COMAH sites in the UK progressing with PSM, there is a huge amount still to be done, Crotty noted at the London conference.

To address this, the INEOS?director urged two main lines of attack: “Using the experience already out there to best effect; and getting leaders in the industry to get out there and say ‘this is important stuff we really have to sort this out’.”