Global Congress on Process Safety - 2012 __________________________________________________________________________

Global Congress on Process Safety - 2012 __________________________________________________________________________

Global Congress on Process Safety - 2012
__________________________________________________________________________
How to Go From “Lessons” to “Learned”:
A Systematic Process Safety Management Benchmarking System
to Drive Learning
Cindie Pridy
Phillip Townsend Associates, Inc.
523 N. Sam Houston Parkway East, Suite 500
Houston, Texas USA 77060-4036
www.ptai.com
[email protected]
Robert Cravens
Phillip Townsend Associates, Inc.
[email protected]
Prepared for Presentation at
8th Global Congress on Process Safety
Houston, TX
April 1-4, 2012
AIChE shall not be responsible for statements or opinions contained
in papers or printed in its publications
Global Congress on Process Safety - 2012
__________________________________________________________________________
How to Go From “Lessons” to “Learned”:
A Systematic Process Safety Management Benchmarking System
to Drive Learning
Cindie Pridy
Phillip Townsend Associates, Inc.
523 N. Sam Houston Parkway East, Suite 500
Houston, Texas USA 77060-4036
www.ptai.com
[email protected]
Robert Cravens
Phillip Townsend Associates, Inc.
[email protected]
Keywords: benchmarking, gap analysis, metric, performance gap, process safety management
system, risk based process safety element, survey
Abstract
In 2009, the CCPS® and Phillip Townsend Associates, Inc. (PTAI) entered into an agreement to
develop a benchmarking system for process safety management systems (PSMS). The 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 of improving 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 20 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 to understand 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 in participation. Specifically, this paper focuses on the
most important decisions and behaviors that leadership can take to improve process safety
throughout the organization and close the gap to the top performers.
The following topics are discussed in the paper:
• What is Benchmarking?
• What is the Value Proposition of Process Safety Benchmarking?
Global Congress on Process Safety - 2012
__________________________________________________________________________
•
•
•
How does it Work?
What are the Benefits of PSMS Benchmarking?
Key Applications and Lessons Learned
1. Introduction
Chemical production and the associated 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 fires related to process materials while also ensuring adequate
safety systems are in place. Process safety management systems differ from personnel safety
management in that process safety focuses directly on the 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 led to failure, and operating
discipline and management behaviors that ensure adequate layers of protection are being
maintained. The focus shifts from the lagging indicators that track incidents, to leading metrics
that are used in a proactive manner to prevent incidents and continuously improve (see Fig.1).
Figure 1. Process Safety Management System Leading and Lagging Metrics (API 754, 2010)
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 then, the Center for Chemical
Process Safety (CCPS®) has identified 20 process safety elements to be used as guidelines for a
risk based safety process (CCPS®, 2007). In 2009, the CCPS® and Phillip Townsend
Global Congress on Process Safety - 2012
__________________________________________________________________________
Associates, Inc. (PTAI) entered into an agreement to develop a benchmarking program for
Process Safety Management Systems (PSMS).
Viewed from a risk based perspective, the process safety elements can be grouped into four
categories: Commitment to Process Safety, Understanding Hazards and Risk, Managing Risk,
and Systematic Learning from Experience. PTAI and CCPS® designed the PSMS benchmark
selecting six of the 20 elements: Process Safety Culture, Compliance with Standards, Hazard
Identification and Risk Analysis, Asset Integrity and Reliability, Management of Change,
and Measurement and Metrics (see Fig.2) (CCPS®, 2007). The key goal was to seek an
understanding of the relationship between process safety outcomes and management practices
Figure 2. Program Scope
COMMIT TO
PROCESS
SAFETY
• Process Safety Culture
• Compliance with Standards
UNDERSTAND RISK
•
• Measures and Metrics
LEARN FROM
EXPERIENCE
• Asset Integrity and Reliability
• Management of Change
Hazard
Identification and
Risk Analysis
MANAGE
RISK
This paper discusses the details 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 behavior changes that leadership can make to spread process safety awareness
throughout the organization and close the gap to the top performers.
2. What is Benchmarking?
Benchmarking identifies how well a company is doing compared to its peers in the industry,
what the industry top performance is, how large the gap is to the top performers within the
industry, and create a stimulus for continuous improvement (see Fig.3). Benchmarking programs
seek to understand the relationship between outcomes and management practices. The 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 of improving the design and
implementation of management practices that impact process safety.
Global Congress on Process Safety - 2012
__________________________________________________________________________
Figure 3. Benchmarking Performance Model
3. What is the Value Proposition of Process Safety Benchmarking?
PSMS benchmarking can elevate a company’s process safety performance through four distinct
steps:
3.1
Identify performance gaps
The identification of a company’s performance in relation to Performance Quartiles will
highlight key drivers for performance enhancement versus its peers (see Fig.4). These
quantifiable results will replace perceptions with a data-based reality check. In addition, these
results will identify if the enterprise policies, practices, and procedures are operating as intended
and are achieving the desired results.
3.2
Create performance enhancement goals
Data driven information will provide a measure of the enterprise effectiveness – emphasizing
strengths, weaknesses and potential for improvement over time. This will help focus attention on
the critical aspects of an enterprise that create risk. It will also underscore what improvements
should be made – providing quantifiable performance enhancement goals.
3.3
Measure the effectiveness of improvement programs
PSMS benchmarking can be a starting point for goal setting and performance initiatives aimed at
boosting step change improvements in process safety. The clear outcome is that this will add
significant shareholder value through reduced risks of catastrophic incidents.
3.4
Maintain continuous improvement
The PSMS benchmark will help maintain a stimulus for continuous improvement. It will provide
the necessary motivation to ensure consistent top performance results.
Global Congress on Process Safety - 2012
__________________________________________________________________________
Figure 4. Quartile Comparison and Gap Identification
4. 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. Ensuring
consistency and protection of each participant’s interests are critical to a successful benchmark.
A confidentiality agreement must be completed along with execution of a participation
agreement. The Data Collection Instrument (DCI), providing clear and consistent definitions for
all participating sites/companies, is made available. The use of a secure site over the internet
ensures security of data and ease of use by participants as they are able to see all the survey
questions and select their answers (see Fig.5). A kickoff discussion to align key stakeholders at
each of the sites is critical.
Figure 5. Sample Asset Integrity and Reliability Survey Question
Global Congress on Process Safety - 2012
__________________________________________________________________________
Following submission of the data, PTAI validates the data on a site and company basis and
provides analysis of the results (see Figs.6-8). In particular, statistical analysis of the data is
performed to evaluate various drivers of process safety. The quantitative and qualitative results
are distributed to participants with numerical scores for each element along with an overall
site/company specific score. Strengths, as well as the main opportunities for improvement to
close the gap towards the top performers are identified. A discussion of the study results and gap
opportunities is held with the executive management.
Figure 6. Sample Hazard Identification and Risk Analysis Results
Figure 7. Sample Measurement and Metrics Results
Does Your Company Collect "Leading
Metrics" on Process Safety?
Yes: Near misses associated with
management system failure
Challenges/demands on safety
systems
Releases below the threshold level
set for an incident
Your Company
Your Company
The effectiveness of the process
safety management systems
Use data to set corporate-level goals
No
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Global Congress on Process Safety - 2012
__________________________________________________________________________
Figure 8. Sample Management of Change Results
Percent MOCs Closed More Than 90 days
after Approval to Operate
Frequeuency of Respondents
0.45
0.40
0.38
0.35
0.30
0.25
0.23
0.23
0.20
0.15
0.10
Your
Company
0.14
20-40%
>40%
0.08
0.05
0.00
5%
5-10%
10-20%
5. What are the benefits of PSMS Benchmarking?
Management review is an integral part of moving from lessons learned to systematic
improvement of PSMS. A review of the performance gaps can identify potential problems and
address them before an incident occurs; as well as, identify opportunities for improvement to
move from current levels to the level of top performers. PSMS benchmarking can also help an
organization prioritize the allocation of process safety resources, both financial and human, to
focus on the highest identified risk areas
Among the benefits of PSMS benchmarking, there are certain ones that can have a big impact on
an organization. There should be a marked increase in staff awareness of process safety issues.
This awareness will expand the issues from the Health & Safety group to Engineering to
Operations. Based on the organizational level of results discussion, it will potentially increase
awareness from site management to impact those that are responsible for setting corporate
strategy. PSMS benchmarking creates a common understanding and language on process safety
matters. Benchmarking can also reduce risks by potentially providing an incident early warning
system. Sometimes the opportunities for improvement can be very different from the perceived
gaps in an organization. Identifying and gaining insight on perceived gaps versus actual gaps is
greatly enhanced by an independent benchmark which effectively creates consistency across
multiple sites within a company and with the others in the peer group.
6. Key Applications and Lessons Learned
Traditional process safety surveys have identified a list of both quantitative and qualitative
issues. Translating the qualitative issues into measurable, actionable steps is a key issue for
Global Congress on Process Safety - 2012
__________________________________________________________________________
senior management decision making and allocation of resources. Benchmarking results must be
measurable and use a scoring methodology that will not only identify the performance gaps, but
also quantify the impact of selected actions. The PSMS benchmarking process designed by
CCPS® and PTAI includes a scoring methodology that does just that. Benchmarking is a
systematic way to make site-to-site company comparisons and view a company’s performance
level in relation to that of top performers.
The application of the benchmarking results to identify performance gaps provides meaningful
insight for organizations as they develop goals and the associated improvement plans to reach
those goals. Repeated benchmarking monitors the rate of improvement. One example of a
lesson learned that applies to numerous organizations relates to Process Safety Culture. The
findings from the Process Safety Culture section indicate the largest range of results compared to
the other sections. The underlying cause of the low scores was a direct outcome of not
monitoring the process safety culture through the use of an employee survey. Without a way to
assess their work force’s values, attitudes and behaviors pertaining to process safety, an
organization will have no meaningful basis for making and measuring improvements.
7. Conclusions
Process safety is a mature, but continuously evolving concept with practices and procedures
varying widely among the refining, chemical and chemical processing industry. Moving from a
compliance model to a risk-based model requires a comprehensive approach to managing
process safety. Substantial improvement opportunities exist for even the current top performers.
Specifically, no site has made a perfect score on any of the risk-based elements of the PSMS
benchmark.
The PSMS benchmarking program is a unique methodology to allow companies to identify how
large the gap is to top performers and to “learn” how to prioritize resource allocations based on
the greatest impact opportunity to improve their process safety management system. This shifts
the understanding of current practices to the lessons learned that are measurable and actionable.
The benchmarking process identifies top quartile management practices while highlighting not
only a company’s strengths, but also potential development opportunities. The program’s scoring
system provides a marker to track improvements and measure the gaps within the company sites
and against external top performers. Using a systematic Process Safety Management System
benchmark drives lessons learned to strategic and organizational learning.
8. References
[1]
American Petroleum Institute, API RP 754, “Process Safety Performance Indicators for
the Refining and Petrochemical Industries, First Edition,” 2010.
[2]
Center for Chemical Process Safety CCPS®, “Guidelines for Risk Based Process
Safety,” John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, ISBN 978-0-470-16569-0: liii-liv, 2007.