Process Safety Management , audits

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

Audits and corrective actions Audits for industrial hygiene compliance can be performed concurrent with, or separately from, process safety management audits... 

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. 

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. 

The next process step evaluates the process safety management systems to determine if they are adequate to achieve the desired results, and if they are used as intended. This evaluation is highly subjective on the auditors part. This step sets the stage for the rest of the audit, guiding the auditor s information gathering and focusing attention on critical areas. 

The audit team, through its systematic analysis, should document areas that require corrective action as well as where the process safety management system is effective. This provides a record of the audit procedures and findings and serves as a baseline of operation data for future audits. It will assist in determining changes or trends in future audits. 

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

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

Audit Process Audits in the chemical process industry can be focused on process safety, process safety management, environmental, and health areas. The discussion in this section will focus on the process safety and process safety management area, but it should be recognized that the process can be applied to the other areas as well. "Process safety audits are intended to provide management with increased assurance that operating facilities and process units have... 

Gathering audit data can be accomplished through observations, documents, and interviews. The data obtained is used to verify and validate that the process safety management systems are implemented and functioning as designed. Data gathering can be aided oy the use of audit samples, where a representative number of items are audited to draw a conclusion, and by using self-evaluation questionnaires. 

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