Augmented Manual Procedures Can Help Improve Process Operations

Twenty years ago, the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued its Process Safety Management (PSM) of Highly Hazardous Chemicals standard.  The objective was to spell out the requirements for preventing or minimizing the consequences of catastrophic releases of toxic, reactive, flammable, or explosive chemicals that could result in toxic, fire, or explosion hazards.  Recent analysis of abnormal events in the process industry by both the AIChE – Center for Chemical Safety and the US Chemical Safety Board indicates that, though major progress has been made, the improvement trajectory seems to have plateaued. 

Most companies affected by the regulation have deployed a combination of solutions involving human behavior management, equipment safety systems, and more extensive operating procedures.  However, improvement in abnormal event avoidance tapered off.  A deeper investigation reveals that the severity of less-frequent incidents is climbing at a disturbing and surprising rate from the perspective of injury, illness, environmental exposure, and property damage.

This raises the questions: “What is different?” and “Have the failure mechanisms that initiate abnormal events changed?”

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Keywords: Process Safety Management (PSM), Highly Hazardous Chemicals, NovaTech, ARC Advisory Group.