Pre-start-up reviews

Facilities Reviews There are many lands of facilities reviews that are useful in detec ting and preventing process safety problems. They include pre-start-up reviews (before the plant operates), new-plant reviews (the plant has started, but is stiU new), reviews of existing plants (safety, technology, and operations audits and reviews), management reviews, critical instrument reviews, and hazardous materials transportation reviews. 

To distinguish between a review and an audit, some definitions will be provided. A review is a critical examination or evaluation of any operation, procedure, condition, event, or equipment item. Reviews can take many forms and be identified as project reviews, design reviews, safety reviews, pre-start-up reviews, and so on. The following discussion of the review process will deal with project reviews associated with capital projects and focus on the area of process safety. 

The project review process involves multiple steps that should be definea in management gmdelines (CCPS, 1993, pp. 57-61). The steps include (1) review pohcy, (2) review scheduling, (3) reviewtech-nique, (4) review team representation, (5) review documentation, (6) review follow-up, (7) review follow-up verification, and (8) review procedures change management. These steps define how a review, whether it be a safety review, environmental review, pre-start-up review, or whatever, is conducted and how closure of review aclion items is achieved. 

Review Follow-up Verification In addition to someone tracking the follow-up through progress reports, responsibility should be assigned to verify that any process changes were ac tuaUy made in the field. This verification can be done by a review team as part of a process pre-start-up review. It could also be part of the project team management responsibihty or assigned to a particular functional (i.e., safety and loss prevention) representative. The closure of the review process is complete once implementation is verified. 

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