Summary Bullets
Failure of management to support safety testing
Intolerable risk introduced by management decision
Management undermines the safety message of the organizational structure
Background
The Process Safety Management System (PSMS) Coordinator reported to the Operations Manager. This structure was intended to reinforce the message that all process safety matters were line management responsibilities. In this structure, the PSMS Coordinator served as an advisor to the Operations Manager.
What Happened
Many decisions advocated by the Coordinator were subordinated to production concerns. On several occasions when the Coordinator attempted to include process safety concerns into the decision-making process, he was asked to prove that an unsafe situation existed.
In one case, the Manager decided to skip a scheduled short outage to proof test Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS), among other process safety activities. The Coordinator explained these were SIL2 control loops that required a specific proof testing frequency to provide the expected amount of risk reduction. Failing to test would introduce an intolerable risk because the SISs could not be assumed to have the required level of reliability. Few others in the room understood the technical issues associated with deferring the proof testing of SISs. The concerns of the PSMS Coordinator were summarily dismissed.
It appeared the facility was on the right track by having the PSMS Coordinator report to the Operations Manager. Where did they go wrong?
In one case, the Manager decided to skip a scheduled short outage to proof test Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS), among other process safety activities. The Coordinator explained these were SIL2 control loops that required a specific proof testing frequency to provide the expected amount of risk reduction. Failing to test would introduce an intolerable risk because the SISs could not be assumed to have the required level of reliability. Few others in the room understood the technical issues associated with deferring the proof testing of SISs. The concerns of the PSMS Coordinator were summarily dismissed.
It appeared the facility was on the right track by having the PSMS Coordinator report to the Operations Manager. Where did they go wrong?
Safety Culture Focus
Safety first—schedules should not take precedent over safety issues.
Managements disregard for safety testing undermines the safety culture.
Additional risk unnecessarily introduced into the process subverts mutual trust.
Management fails to support the purpose of the organizational reporting structure for safety.
Safety Culture Focus Note
**Only 37% of those surveyed indicated management involvement was a strength in their organization.**
Source File
E.13.pptx
(324.01 KB)