Lessons learned from past accidents - The integration of human and organizational factors with the technical aspect

It is of prime importance to ensure the safety of chemical process plants due to volatile nature of the industry and drastic consequences of the accidents. A number of parameters can affect the safety of the process plants. One of the main parameters that has the influence on the safety of operations is the Human and Organizational Factors (HOF) as suggested by numbers of existing studies. Therefore, in order to enhance the safety of operations it is required to improve the HOF. These factors can be improved by an integrated approach as proposed in this work, instead looking at these factors in an isolation. A number of existing risk assessment approaches have been analysed in this work and their compliance requirements to the relevant International Standards with respect to the HOF. A new quantitative methodology “Method for Error Deduction and Incident Analysis (MEDIA)” has been developed in this work. During the development of this methodology, practicality; consistency; integration with other risk assessment techniques and efficient use of information were explicitly ensured. The MEDIA can help to integrate the HOF around the technical aspect and can prioritize the follow up actions based on risk. The quantification of this methodology is based on results of the accident analysis, that has been carried out in this work. The accidents of 25 years (1988-2012) in the Seveso establishments and that were reported to the European Commission’s Major Accident Reporting System (eMARS) have been studied. The results from the accident analysis have further used in order to learn lessons and to propose future recommendations. These recommendations are mainly aimed at further integration of the HOF and to improve the overall safety of chemical process plants. More specifically, these recommendations are addressed to the use of organizational checklist during the Hazard Identification (HAZID) study; improvement of existing eMARS reporting structure and the legal obligation towards the EU Member States to report their accidents to the European Commission

Monitoring the perfromance of safety barriers in daily operations by using QRA and risk influencing factors indicators

Master's thesis in Risk managementThe concept of safety barriers has become a main focus in the oil and gas industry in the last decade. Accordingly, many efforts are being spent from the risk decision makers to improve the understanding of the different aspects in that context. One of the main challenges is how to integrate the quantitative risk analysis (QRA) with safety barrier management (SBM). The integration of both concepts will result in better management of major accident hazards (MAH) on board the production facilities. However, the integration of QRA with SBM can take several forms when it comes to the operations phase. Condition monitoring of safety barriers’ performance can be a good solution for bridging the gap between both tools. The objective of the thesis is to introduce a methodology for monitoring the performance of safety barriers continuously in daily operations on offshore production platforms. The safety barriers are monitored through indicators. The indicators are representing the critical human, technical and organisational (MTO) factors that could influence the performance of safety barriers dramatically during operations. Further, the critical MTO factors are identified through independent uncertainty and sensitivity assessments of the performance of safety barriers as provided in the QRA results. Afterwards, the different indicators of each factors are linked with a risk barometer in order to indicate the status of the particular safety barrier. Such status, as indicated on the barometer, is providing the concerned parties with early warning signals about the performance degradation of the barrier of interest. Accordingly, the operation personnel and management can take the proper precautionary actions to maintain the performance of the safety barrier within the safe limit. In order to produce the proposed methodology, the thesis has covered different aspects of safety barriers and risk assessment on its context. At the beginning, a literature review of the concepts of risk, risk assessment, and safety barriers is introduced. In particular, this part has introduced the scientific foundation of these concepts, in addition to, their different types and methods of classification. Furthermore, the thesis has introduced a brief description of the relevant regulatory requirements and standards in the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). Subsequently, the thesis has also described the methodologies used for including the performance of safety barriers into QRA model. In this part, it has been recommended that the influence of MTO factors on safety barriers performance should be considered when performing QRA. Moreover, the methods of uncertainty and sensitivity analyses have been described and discussed to identify the most applicable approach for criticality assessment of MTO factors. Finally, the thesis has concluded with a case study and discussion to illustrate the possibility of implementing the proposed methodology for monitoring the safety barriers continuously in operations phase

Impact of common cause failure on reliability performance of redundant safety related systems subject to process demand

Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and feedback.Peer reviewedPostprin

The relationship between safety communication and human factor accident at the workplace – a conceptual framework

Rapid development in industrialization and global economy has contributed to the increased number of workplace injuries and accidents. These days, with the advancement and the reliability of technology, accidents caused by equipment and machinery failures seem to be decreasing. However, human element tends to become a significant contributor in accident at the workplace. Statistical reports and evidences indicate that around 80 to 90 percent of work-related accidents can be attributed to human factors. Notably, the concept of human factor accident has evolved over time. Decades ago, human factor accident has been defined as the contact between man and machine, poor workplace and equipment design at the workplace or within an operation system. In recent years, researches on human factor accident have shown a changing trend. Attention has been focused more on individual factors and organizational factors which contribute to human factor accident at the workplace. Besides, safety communication at the workplace has playing a vital role in reducing human factor accident. Effective communication among the workers and leader is believed to help in reduce the risk of human factor accident to be happened. Thus, this study reviews the literature on human factor accident and safety communication. In order to examine the relationship of safety communication and human factor accident, 300 sets of questionnaire will be distributed to the production workers from manufacturing companies in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. In the final part of this paper, the researcher has come out with a conceptual framework of the relationship between safety communication and human factor accident based on the literature reviewed

Reliability modelling of redundant safety systems without automatic diagnostics incorporating common cause failures and process demand

Sriramula’s work within the Lloyd’s Register Foundation Centre for Safety and Reliability Engineering at the University of Aberdeen is supported by Lloyd’s Register Foundation. The Foundation helps to protect life and property by supporting engineering-related education, public engagement and the application of re-search.Peer reviewedPostprin

Certifications of Critical Systems – The CECRIS Experience

In recent years, a considerable amount of effort has been devoted, both in industry and academia, to the development, validation and verification of critical systems, i.e. those systems whose malfunctions or failures reach a critical level both in terms of risks to human life as well as having a large economic impact.Certifications of Critical Systems – The CECRIS Experience documents the main insights on Cost Effective Verification and Validation processes that were gained during work in the European Research Project CECRIS (acronym for Certification of Critical Systems). The objective of the research was to tackle the challenges of certification by focusing on those aspects that turn out to be more difficult/important for current and future critical systems industry: the effective use of methodologies, processes and tools.The CECRIS project took a step forward in the growing field of development, verification and validation and certification of critical systems. It focused on the more difficult/important aspects of critical system development, verification and validation and certification process. Starting from both the scientific and industrial state of the art methodologies for system development and the impact of their usage on the verification and validation and certification of critical systems, the project aimed at developing strategies and techniques supported by automatic or semi-automatic tools and methods for these activities, setting guidelines to support engineers during the planning of the verification and validation phases

Model-based Systems Engineering for Design, Management, and Governance of Protective Systems

The failure of protective systems can be catastrophic, and has its origin in management. Yet, most engineering works regarding protective systems focus on their physical components. Historically, protective systems have relied on a document-based approach, which implies handling several disjointed artifacts that are expensive to maintain and have a high potential for inconsistency and obsolescence. We present a framework that embeds management and governance in protective systems and harmonizes regulations, theories, and inconsistent industry guidelines. It pioneers the modeling of protective systems according to the tenors of model-based systems engineering (MBSE), which significantly reduces the pitfalls of its document-based counterpart. It provides a realistic approach to manage multiple aspects of change, and offers traceability, simulation, and visualization capabilities. First, we sketched a conceptual model that encompasses the physical components, management system, policy, laws and regulation, stakeholders and lifecycle, and stresses the importance of understanding the interactions among elements and their dynamic nature. Then, we used it as a baseline to develop the structure and behavior of our computerized model in SysML. Our MBSE framework advances the state of the art in safety-critical protective systems by integrating management and governance, and offering further capabilities inherent to the MBSE approach. It is suitable for combined design, operation, and regulation; it reduces the cost of maintenance of its artifacts; and it offers tools for simulation, impact analysis, and management of change. It supports shared governance and mitigates information asymmetry. Potential users include both enterprises and regulators from the chemical process safety industry and the energy sector, and any other agents invested in the design and management of protective systems. The model of protective systems developed in this research conforms to the standards issued by the Object Management Group (OMG) and the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE). We believe that it may constitute a beginning point in the development of more sophisticated standards and both prescriptive and performance-based regulation for protective systems, intended to prevent catastrophic failures. It may also help regulators to synthesize and disseminate information, as they serve as an interface and mediator between companies and the general public

Certifications of Critical Systems – The CECRIS Experience

In recent years, a considerable amount of effort has been devoted, both in industry and academia, to the development, validation and verification of critical systems, i.e. those systems whose malfunctions or failures reach a critical level both in terms of risks to human life as well as having a large economic impact.Certifications of Critical Systems – The CECRIS Experience documents the main insights on Cost Effective Verification and Validation processes that were gained during work in the European Research Project CECRIS (acronym for Certification of Critical Systems). The objective of the research was to tackle the challenges of certification by focusing on those aspects that turn out to be more difficult/important for current and future critical systems industry: the effective use of methodologies, processes and tools.The CECRIS project took a step forward in the growing field of development, verification and validation and certification of critical systems. It focused on the more difficult/important aspects of critical system development, verification and validation and certification process. Starting from both the scientific and industrial state of the art methodologies for system development and the impact of their usage on the verification and validation and certification of critical systems, the project aimed at developing strategies and techniques supported by automatic or semi-automatic tools and methods for these activities, setting guidelines to support engineers during the planning of the verification and validation phases