(41g) A Four-Level Element-Based Assessment and Grading Method for Chemical Enterprise

The implementation of chemical process safety management is a critical approach to transitioning the safety governance model of the chemical and hazardous chemicals industries from reactive measures to proactive prevention. Assessing the level of chemical process safety management is fundamental to improving safety management standards. Existing assessment methods suffer from issues such as insufficiently detailed scoring criteria, unclear review procedures, and differences in the interpretation of assessment items. To enhance and improve the safety governance system for chemical process safety in the chemical and hazardous chemicals sectors, and to raise the level of process safety management, China has issued the Guidelines for Chemical Process Safety Management (AQ/T 3034-2022). This document includes 20 management elements: safety planning and design, safety during initial startup, inherent safety, safety leadership, safety accountability, regulatory compliance management, safety information management, education, training and capacity building, risk management, safe operations, equipment integrity management, safety instrument management, major hazard source safety management, work permit systems, contractor safety management, change management, emergency preparedness and response, incident management, safety culture, and system audits and continuous improvement. This study is based on these 20 elements and utilizes a four-tiered element review approach to establish a graded evaluation standard for chemical enterprises, thereby quantifying, refining, and deepening the existing evaluation criteria.

First, classify and categorize companies based on safety risk levels, dividing chemical enterprises into key supervision and regular supervision categories. Key supervision enterprises primarily include hazardous chemical production companies, chemical enterprises involving major hazard sources or key regulated chemical processes (non-hazardous chemical enterprises), pharmaceutical chemical companies, and so on. Regular supervision enterprises include hazardous chemical trading and storage enterprises, etc. For key supervision enterprises, categorize them into large, medium, small, and micro scales based on characteristics like workforce size and revenue, implementing differentiated regulatory approaches.

The second step involves determining assessment elements for different types and scales of chemical enterprises, as outlined in the Guidelines for Chemical Process Safety Management (AQ/T 3034-2022), which contains 20 management elements. Three of these—safety in facility planning and design, initial facility startup safety, and inherently safer design—do not apply to in-service facilities. Thus, large and medium-sized enterprises should focus on 17 management elements, including safety leadership, safety accountability systems, safety compliance management, among others. For small and micro enterprises, where organizational structures and safety management activities are relatively simpler, the 20 elements are consolidated into 9: safety leadership and accountability, safety education, training and capability building, risk management, production operations management, equipment integrity management, work permit systems, emergency preparedness and response, incident and accident management, and system audits and continuous improvement.

The third step is to quantitatively evaluate each element for chemical enterprises. This involves scoring each management element (M_n) based on four levels: completeness, effectiveness, execution, and execution outcomes. The overall process safety management score for the enterprise is then calculated by weighing each element score (M_n) with its relative importance (D_n).

The final step is to grade the process safety management level of chemical enterprises based on the quantitative results. The grading considers both the overall score and the average score of key management elements, with restrictions on the score of any critical element. According to these standards, the process safety management level for chemical enterprises is categorized into ‘Excellent (Blue),’ ‘Good (Yellow),’ ‘Fair (Orange),’ and ‘Poor (Red).

A pilot evaluation of 44 enterprises in a certain province showed that among all evaluated elements, the safety instrumentation management had the highest average score rate at 81.9%, while safety information management and contractor management had lower scores, at 49.8% and 49.5%, respectively. Taking contractor management as an example, an assessment of 10 companies showed 2 companies rated as ‘Excellent,’ 1 as ‘Good,’ 2 as ‘Fair,’ and 5 as ‘Poor.’ Common issues include unclear responsibilities for contractor management and ineffective risk analysis for contractor operations.

Government and enterprise managers can apply differentiated, refined supervision and management strategies based on the various process safety management levels, driving continuous improvement in chemical safety management capacities for enterprises.