In this PSM refers to the CCPS use of Risk Based Process Safety Management Systems as described to OSHA PSM system
History of Process Safety
Organizations in the process industries have a long standing concern for process safety. (See the inset about the manufacture of nitroglycerine as an example.) Organizations originally had safety reviews for processes that relied on the experience and expertise of the people in the review. In the middle of the 20th century, more formal review techniques began to appear in the process industries. These included the Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) review, developed by ICI in the 1960s, Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA), Checklist and What-If reviews. These were qualitative techniques for assessing the hazards of a process.Quantitative analysis techniques, such as Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), which had been in use by the nuclear industry, Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA), and Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA) also began to be used in the process industries in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Modeling techniques were developed for analyzing the consequences of spills and releases, explosions, and toxic exposures. The Design Institute of Emergency Relief Systems (DIERS) was established within the AIChE in 1976 to develop methods for the design of emergency relief systems to handle runaway reactions. By the mid to late 1970s, process safety was a recognized technical specialty. The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) formed the Safety and Health Division in 1979
Process safety management
A management system is a formally established and documented set of activities and procedures designed to produce specific results in a consistent manner on a sustainable basis. Process Safety Management (PSM), therefore, is a management system that is focused on prevention of, preparedness for, mitigation of, response to, or restoration from releases of chemicals or energy from a process associated with a facility. In this PSM refers to the CCPS use of Risk Based Process Safety Management Systems as described in the balance of this, as opposed to the OSHA PSM system.

RISK
To discuss a risk-based process safety program, the concept of risk must be understood. A typical dictionary definition of risk, for example the MirriamWebster on-line dictionary, is “the possibility of loss or injury” or “someone or something that creates or suggests a hazard”. The CCPS definition has three elements as opposed to two. They are: the hazard (what can go wrong), the magnitude (how bad can it be) and the likelihood (how often can it happen). Thus, in the process industries, understanding the risk associated with an activity requires answering the following questions:- What can go wrong? (human injury, environmental damage, or economic loss)
- How bad could it be? (magnitude of the loss or injury)
- How often might it happen? (likelihood of the loss or injury)

Commitment to process safety
is the cornerstone of process safety excellence. Organizations generally do not improve without strong leadership and solid management commitment. For process safety, management needs to recognize that process safety is not the same as personal safety, and move beyond personal safety programs. You will learn if the management of your company is committed to process safety by its actions. Organizations that understand hazards and risk are better able to allocate limited resources in the most effective manner. Industrial experience has demonstrated that businesses using hazard and risk information to plan, develop, and deploy stable, lower-risk operations are much more likely to enjoy long-term success.Managing risk
It focuses on four issues: (1) prudently operating and maintaining processes that pose the risk, (2) managing changes to those processes to ensure that the risk remains tolerable, (3) maintaining the integrity of equipment and assuring quality of materials, fabrications, and repairs, (4) preparing for, responding to, and managing incidents that do occur.Managing risk helps a company or a facility deploy management systems that help sustain long-term, incident-free, and profitable operations.
Learning from experience
Involves monitoring, and acting on, internal and external sources of information. Despite a company’s best efforts, operations do not always proceed as planned, accidents and near misses occur. A near miss is an event in which an accident (that is, property damage, environmental impact, or human loss) or an operational interruption could have plausibly resulted if circumstances had been slightly different. Organizations must be ready to turn their mistakes – and those of others – into opportunities to improve process safety efforts.The twenty elements are described in more detail in the following sections. As a new engineer or someone new to process safety, some of these elements will have a more direct impact on you than others, but all have some impact. For example, learning about the Codes and Standards that affect your process and location will be an important part of your first few years in industry, whereas you may not be involved in Stakeholder Outreach at all. Nevertheless, the effort expended by the organization on stakeholder outreach may have a direct impact on how you will have to approach process safety at your locale.
- [accordion]
- Risk Based Process Safety Management
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- 2. CCPS - Risk Based Process Safety Overview
- 3. CCPS - Risk Based Process Safety Summary
- Risk Based Process Safety Management
- 2. CCPS - Risk Based Process Safety Overview
- 3. CCPS - Risk Based Process Safety Summary