2019 Spring Meeting and 15th Global Congress on Process Safety
(9b) How to Prioritize Safeguards When They Are All Critical?
In order to correctly identify critical safeguards, it often requires hundreds of hours of cross-disciplinary Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Fortunately, these are the same SMEs involved in developing Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) documentation. By using PHAs as a data source, the documentation of hazardous scenarios and safeguards can used to prioritize Critical Safeguards using the following criteria:
- Likelihood of a Cause
- Severity and Tolerability of a Consequence
- PFD/Credits of Safeguards
These criteria are used to determine the risk reduction associated with each occurrence of a safeguard, and by cumulating that risk reduction, the total risk benefit of each safeguard can be determined to assist in prioritization. By having safeguard prioritization validated or foundationally based on SME approved data, the confidence in safeguard maintenance prioritization will increase and reduce the chance of missing maintenance on critical safeguards.