Process Safety Management System Performance Measures for the Chemical Industry

Abstract

The Center for Chemical Process Safety of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers has developed a twelve-element model management system for process safety. Concord has worked with CCPS to develop performance measures for two of the elements, namely “Management of Change” and “Training”. A unique feature of the measures is that they continuously assess the performance of the elements, a feature somewhat analogous to the control of a plant. This contrasts with an audit evaluation which captures a snapshot of the management system performance at a particular instant of time.

Of special interest here is the method used to build the measures which employed chemical plant process safety experts performing the functions for which they are accepted as experts. For instance, analysis of the management systems used a method well known to chemical engineers for assessing chemical process safety, the Hazard and Operability Study (HAZOP) (AIChE/CCPS 1985) process. Further, synthesis of the performance measures employed process safety experts in a role they perform in their professions - assessment of the level of performance of various demonstrations of process safety management systems. This methodology is believed to be a reliable way of obtaining information from experts. That method is described in this paper.