Reliability of Equipment and Facilities - the Importance of Quality Management and Control in Industrial Process Implementation Projects

Many Process Safety events resulting in irreparable losses have their origin in Quality Management and Control failures. The ISO 9001 standard outlines all the requirements for implementing a Quality Management System in a company and shares similar requirements with ISO 14001 and ISO 45001, with ISO 31001 serving as a common reference among them for risk identification, evaluation, and management.

Through the analysis of causes or risk analysis of Process Events, it can be demonstrated how a Quality Management System, if adopted as a strategic decision, could prevent such events or mitigate losses.

A safe process begins with good risk management, encompassing all its phases:

Design - The process of risk identification, assessment, and management begins at the project's conception of the plant, process, or equipment. By applying the "fail-safe" concept, we have a process immune to human errors, adopting safety and reliability requirements that are clearly established, meeting standards, laws, and local specifications.

Installation - During the installation phase, careful quality control is required during construction and assembly to ensure compliance with design requirements, resulting in the reliability of the equipment comprising the industrial plant's processes.

Operation - For operation, competent personnel and effective management are required to ensure that the process is executed within the plant's safety limits, considering the equipment's usage time and its effects.

Maintenance - Ensuring the plant's reliability maintenance with a maintenance team equipped with monitoring, control, and correction tools, meeting all project requirements through quality control in maintenance services.

The company should adopt the management system as a strategic decision because it guides the business toward sustainability. It's essential to define the scope of the management system and understand the company's context to avoid exclusions or superficiality in the application of requirements, as this can negatively impact the results.

A business is not evaluated by the market solely based on current profit but also by the business's risk and associated liabilities, and in addition, social, environmental, and governance issues.

Therefore, process safety is a crucial factor for the financial health of the business.