Tipisodes Podcast: 9 Tips for Effective Process-Hazard Reviews in Chemical Facilities

Welcome to the Tipisodes edition of Process Safety with Trish and Traci -- the podcast that aims to share insights from past incidents to help avoid future events. I’m Traci Purdum, editor-in-chief of Chemical Processing.

Tipisodes is the newest installment of our Process Safety podcast series. As you might guess, it’s main purpose is to provide tips to help you practice process safety.

In this episode, we offer 9 Tips for Effective Process-Hazard Reviews in Management of Change (MoC)

This is based on an article that appeared in the February issue of Chemical Processing Avoid Big Trouble from Little Changes, Part 1

And now on to the 9 tips

1. Clarify Terminology: Understand the varying terminology for process-hazard reviews in different regions and regulatory authorities to ensure a consistent understanding of safety reviews under Management of Change.

2. Screening for Review Needs:

• Utilize a structured and objective screening process to determine process-hazard review needs for small changes.
• Create a checklist that focuses on modifications leading to process changes or equipment changes.

3. Screening Form Categories: Develop a comprehensive process safety review screening form with categories such as process changes, mechanical changes, safeguards, scenario causes, consequences, occupancy/access changes, operational procedural steps, and others.

4. Screening Questions:

• Include specific and detailed questions for each category in the screening form to ensure thorough consideration of relevant factors.
• Regularly review and update these questions for continuous improvement.

5. Qualified Review and Approval:

• Engage skilled process-safety practitioners to review and approve the screening form.
• Involve specialists from all impacted disciplines to evaluate the change and ensure proper design and assessment.

6. Screening for All Changes:

• Apply process safety review screening to all Management of Change instances, regardless of scope or size.
• Use the same screening process for changes handled through alternative protocols like construction change orders.

7. Avoid Biased Questions:

• Avoid screening questions that presuppose the outcome of the hazard review.
• Eliminate questions that involve opinion, judgment or perceived risk assessment.

8. Auditing and Continuous Improvement:

• Regularly audit the usage of the screening form to ensure proper implementation.
• Investigate and address any errors or misses through root-cause analysis.
• Maintain an effective internal auditing process for the management of change and hazard-review process.

9. Comprehensive Approach:

• Apply the process-safety review screening form to all changes, regardless of their perceived significance.
• Ensure that process changes, equipment modifications, protective systems, and operational procedures all undergo thorough process-hazard review.

By following these tips, chemical facilities can enhance the effectiveness of their process-hazard reviews in the Management of Change (MoC) process, minimizing the risk of missing critical safety considerations and ensuring a robust safety management system.

Unfortunate events happen all over the world and we will be here to discuss and learn from them. Subscribe to this free podcast so you can stay on top of best practices – you can also visit us at chemicalprocessing.com for more tools and resources aimed at helping you run efficient and safe facilities. Thank you for listening to the Tipisodes edition of Process Safety with Trish & Traci