2012 Spring Meeting & 8th Global Congress on Process Safety

(104ad) How to Go From “Lesson” to “Learned”: Systematic PSMS Benchmarking to Drive Learning

Authors



How to Go From “Lesson” to “Learned”: Systematic PSMS Benchmarking to Drive Learning

Robert Cravens, Business Director, and Cindie Pridy, Sr. Project Manager Global Benchmarking; Phillip Townsend Associates, Inc. Houston, Texas

Introduction

Chemical and chemical processing Industries dealing with hazardous and toxic materials have a significant commercial and societal responsibility to eliminate and/or mitigate the loss of primary containment or fire of process materials and insure safety systems. Process safety management differs from personnel safety incidents in that process safety focuses directly on processes; equipment and technology, involved in causing an incident. The broader application of process safety management, decision making, and leadership behavior needs to address loss of containment events of greater and lesser consequences, safety system challenges and failures that could have lead to failure, and operating discipline and management behaviors that ensure layers of protection are being maintained.

The vision and recommendation of industry-wide process safety originated as a result of the 2005 explosion at the BP refinery in Texas City, Texas. Since that time the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS®) has identified 22 process safety elements to be used as guidelines for a risk based safety process. In 2009, the CCPS® and Phillip Townsend Associates, Inc. (PTAI) entered into an agreement to develop a benchmarking system for process safety management systems. The Process Safety Management Systems (PSMS) benchmarking program is a systematic study of process safety for the global chemical, refining and pharmaceutical industries allowing enterprises to compare their management systems with the goal to improve the design and implementation of management practices that impact process safety.

 

Risk based process safety elements can be grouped into four key categories: commitment to process safety, understanding of risk, management of risk, and systematic learning from experience. Starting with six of the 22 elements: Process Safety Culture, Compliance with Standards, Hazard Identification and Risk Analysis, Asset Integrity and Reliability, Management of Change, and Measurement and Metrics; PTAI and CCPS® designed the PSMS benchmark with the intent of seeking an understand of the relationship between process safety outcomes and management practices.

This paper discusses the process of the PSMS benchmark and the value proposition to be gained by enterprises and other stakeholders. Specifically, the paper focuses on the most important decisions and behaviors that leadership can take to move process safety throughout the organization and close the gap to the top performers.

 

What is Benchmarking?

The Process Safety Management Systems (PSMS) benchmarking program is a systematic study of process safety between companies that will allow sites/companies to compare their management systems with the goal to improve the design and implementation of management practices that impact process safety.  Benchmarking identifies how well a company is doing compared to peers in the industry, what the industry top performers performance is, how large the gap is to the best in class within your industry, and maintains stimulus for continuous improvement. Benchmarking programs seek to understand the relationship between process safety outcomes and management practices.

What is the value proposition of Process Safety Benchmarking?

The value proposition includes:

  • Identification and communication of Performance Quartiles highlighting key drivers for performance enhancement versus peers.
    • Removal of perception gaps from reality
    • Identifies if the enterprise policies, practices, and procedures are operating as intended and are achieving desired results.
  • Data driven information the enterprise effectiveness, highlighting strengths, weaknesses and potential for improvement over time.
    • Focused attention on the critical aspects of an enterprise that create risk
    • What improvements should be made?
  • Starting point for goal setting and performance initiatives aimed at providing a step change improvements in process safety.
    • Add significant shareholder value through reduced risks of catastrophic accidents.
  • Maintains a stimulus for continuous improvement.

How does it work?  

A peer group is established of sites/companies agreeing to compare their process safety programs and performance in an effort to identify best practices and drive improvement. Critical steps include:

 

  • Completion of a confidentiality agreement and execution of participation agreement.
  • Distribution of the Data Collection Instrument (DCI) with consistent definitions for all participating sites/companies.
  • Data validation and analysis on a site and company level by a steering committee.
  • Statistical analysis of the data to evaluate various drivers of process safety.
  • Distribution of the quantitative and qualitative results.
  • Discussion of the study results with executive management. 
  • Identification of strengths, as well as, main opportunities for improvement to close the gap towards the top performers.

What are the Benefits of PSMS Benchmarking?

The benefits of PSMS benchmarking include:

  • Increased staff awareness of process safety issues.
    • Expanding the process from engineering to operations; from site management to corporate strategy
  • Creates a common understanding and language on process safety matters.
  • Reduces risks through potentially providing an accident early warning system.
    • Identify potential problems and address them before an incident occurs.
  • Helps decision making regarding allocation of process safety resources including financial and human resources.

Key Applications and Lessons Learned

 

  • Benchmarking results must be measurable, using a scoring methodology that bridges for gaps and the impact of selected actions.
  • Process safety is an emerging concept with practices and procedures varying widely among the chemical and chemical processing industry.
  • Substantial improvement opportunities exist for even the current top performers.