Audits Process

Investigating Chemical Process Incidents Auditing Process Safety Management Systems Making Acute Risk Decisions... 

Guidelinesfor Technical Management of Chemical Process Safety Center for Chemical Process Safety, New York, 1989 Guidelines for Auditing Process Safety Management Systems Center for Chemical Process Safety, New York, 1993. 

Introduction Review and audit processes are used in the chemical process industry to evaluate, examine, and verify the design of process equipment, operating procedures, and management systems. These processes assure compliance with company standards and guidelines as well as government regulations. Reviews and audits can encompass the areas of process and personnel safety, environmental and industrial hygiene protection, quality assurance, maintenance procedures, and so on. 

The following sections will describe the project review and audit processes separately, addressing the why, when, and how for each process. 

The key steps in the audit process are outlined according to preaudit ac tivities, audit activities, and postaudit activities in Fig. 26-12. These activities are described in detail in Guidelines for Auditing Process Safety Management Systems (CCSP, 1993) and will be only briefly discussed in this sec tion. 

FIG. 26-12 Typical steps in the process safety management audit process. (CCSP, 1993, by peimission of AlChE. )... 

An action plan shoiild be developed by the appropriate personnel of the audited facility to address any deficiencies stated in the audit report. Action plans should state what is to be done, who is responsible for getting it done, and when it is to be completed. Ration e for not taking any action for any of the stated deficiencies should also be documented. The action plan is an important step in closing the audit process. 

Audit (Process Safety Audit) An inspection of a plant or process unit, drawings, procedures, emergency plans, and/or management systems, etc., usually by an independent, impartial team. 

In the last chapter we discussed the importance of well-defined roles. This holds true for the inspection team. For many larger sites a union contract may exist that may specify who participates in the inspec-tion/audit process. At smaller sites, this may be open-ended. We believe that the personnel make-up of an inspection team should depend on the size, complexity, number of employees, and on-site hazards at the site in question. Again, preplanning coupled with a common-sense approach should be the driver. 

Planning is essential to the success of the auditing process. During planning, auditors should select a sufficient number of processes to give a... 

Annex 1 Rules for auditing qualify systems according to ISO/TS 16949 Existing audit process may need to be modified. 

This annex of the Rules contains a flowchart identifying the key stages in the audit process from the initial request for certification through to issue of the certificate. Pre-audit is not a documentation audit. Supplier must provide all required data prior to site visit. 

You need an improvement system that causes improvement opportunities to be identified. Relying on chance encounters will not create the conditions needed for continuous improvement. The data that needs to be analyzed will be generated by a particular process and this process governed by particular documented procedures. By having already placed instructions in these procedures for certain data to be transmitted to your data analysts, you can cause opportunities to be identified. Other opportunities that are less dependent on product or process data may arise from the audit process and particular projects such as benchmarking, customer and supplier surveys. 

Figure 17.2 Internal quality system audit process...

The system audit process is shown in Figure 17.2. Certain activities such as the opening and closing meeting have been omitted for clarity because they are not always needed for internal audits. The product audit process would be somewhat different but the principles would be the same. Further guidance on the conduct of audits can be found in Appendix C. 

Guidelines for Auditing Process Safety Management (CCPS, 1993)... 

Based on the survey we selected individuals at all levels for interviews as part of the audit process... 

Monitoring and Measurement (customer feedback, internal audits, process monitoring, finished product release)... 

Monitoring and measurement - Establish customer complaints/feedback and internal audits processes, evaluate effectiveness of processes, verify product meets acceptance criteria... 

Reference 66, CCPS s Guidelines for Auditing Process Safety Management, and Reference 2, Plant Guidelines for Technical Management of... 

Each area of operation should be audited periodically, usually once every twelve months. However, new areas may be audited on a more frequent basis. Ideally, they are planned mid-way between external audits. This process should be planned well in advance and written down in the Quality Manual as a structured audit programme, covering both the timing and the coverage of the audit process. The audit programme can be of two types, either ... 

A laboratory is free to decide which scheme is most appropriate for its own circumstances. Laboratories entering the audit process for the first time may prefer to carry out an initial complete audit to establish if problems exist, followed, after an appropriate interval, by a rolling programme to maintain standards. When auditing to ISO/IEC 17025, the auditor should plan to witness at least one method being carried out. 

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