Safety performance measurement Process

Suppose a water bottling company has been experiencing an increased frequency of back injuries and wishes to implement a safety performance measurement process. 

Steen van J., 1996. Safety Performance Measurement, European Process Safety Council, Bookcraft Ltd, Somerset. 

The Secret to Measuring Process Safety Performance Combine Process Incident Data with Leading Indicators, Steve Arendt... 

Today s safety professional has moved beyond the standard measurement of safety performance in terms of the number of accidents or injuries and recordable injury and illness rates. More sophisticated techniques that involve safety performance measurement systems, ongoing tracking of results, and continual improvement processes have replaced the early measurements. While today s safety metrics still include accident and illness performance, they also encompass behavior-based safety, safety program implementation performance, and insurance costs and losses. 

Safety performance measures provide data indicating the status of safety activities (Training Resources and Data Exchange (TRADE) 1995,1-36). Comparisons between performance measures and benchmarks or organizational goals allow the safety manager to make decisions and take appropriate action. The key difference between performance measures and safety metrics is that performance measures evaluate the safety process, and safety metrics are the standards of measurement (such as accident rates). A series of safety metrics makes up a safety performance measure. 

Quantitative safety performance measurements can be either outcome oriented or process oriented (Daugherty 1999, 147). Outcome-oriented performance measures are after-the-fact measures. The performance activity has occurred then the results have been measured. Examples of outcome measures used in safety include the reduction in the number of accidents, lost workdays, etc. Outcome measures can provide an indication as to the impact safety program interventions have upon safety performance. These performance measures provide an historical account of the effectiveness of past performance. 

Describe the purpose of the auditing process in a safety performance measurement program. 

The insurance loss experience for an organization is closely related to its safety performance. An understanding of how insurance premiums are calculated and the type of impact accidents can have upon premiums can provide the safety manager with an additional method for measuring safety performance. Along with measures of lost workdays and recordable accidents, insurance industry measures should also be part of the safety performance measurement and improvement process. Examples of quantifiable insurance markers that are indicative of safety performance are loss ratios, experience modification rates, and expense ratios. These insurance industry measures are yet another type of performance measure available to the safety professional. 

The purpose of the use of such indicators is to effectively drive process safety performance (hence process safety culture) to a better place. This chapter cannot do justice to such an important measurement tool and it is hoped that interested individuals will review API-754 for increased imderstanding. 

Safety performance measurement system/occurrence reporting and processing system (SPMS/ORPS) reports Trend charts and graphs Facility parameter readings... 

Appendix 5 provides guidance on establishing process safety performance measures. 

There are many ways to categorize safety performance measures. They are often classified as trailing or leading indicators, outcome or process oriented, results or activity-based measures, downstream factors or upstream factors, and/or qualitative or quantitative metrics. 

CCPS G-55. Guidelines for Performance Measures for Continuous Improvement of Process Safety Management Systems. American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Center for Chemical Process Safety, New York. 

A failure modes and effects analysis is a systematic analytical technique for identifying potential failures in a design or a process, assessing the probability of occurrence and likely effect, and determining the measures needed to eliminate, contain, or control the effects. Action taken on the basis of an FMEA will improve safety, performance, reliability, maintainability and reduce costs. The outputs are essential to balanced and effective quality plans for both development and production as it will help focus the controls upon those products, processes, and characteristics that are at risk. It is not the intention here to give a full appreciation of the FMEA technique and readers are advised to consult other texts. 

Measurement of performance. Quality Management requires that measures of performance be established for every activity. These measures include end-of-pipe measurement, such as amounts of material released into the environment or injury rates, and in-process measures of how efficiently you are managing, such as time to review safety improvement proposals or total resources expended on PSM. Each team should be required to identify potential performance measures for the processes they are developing and the activities these processes manage. Many of the end-of-pipe measures will already exist these should be critically examined to ensure that they truly measure performance and are not unduly influenced by other factors. For example, the number of accidents in a fleet of road vehicles is almost directly dependent on the number of miles driven with no improvement in performance, a reduction in miles driven would reduce the number of accidents. 

There are numerous other CCPS publications that may be helpful in your integration effort. In particular, the selection of measures to monitor the effectiveness of your integration effort and identify continuous improvement opportunities can be enhanced through the use of the results of a CCPS research and development effort to develop performance measures for CCPS s 12 process safety elements. These results will be described in the CCPS Guidelines for Developing Performance Measures for Continuous Improvement of Process Safety Management (scheduled for publication in... 

Key Performance Indicators Preparation for maintenance, the control of modifications, and the testing of protective equipment are examples of key performance indicators i.e., taken together, they indicate uie quality of the plant s and company s process safety. If they are below standard, the plant is at risk. The usual measure of safety, the lost-time accident (LTA) rate, does not measure process safety. Many companies that had a low LTA rate and assumed that their process safety was therefore under control have experienced serious fires and explosions. 

This sketch briefly addresses the problem that many companies in the chemical process industry are currently dealing with regarding safety. In spite of the various kinds of safety measures and indicators used, major catastrophes still occur. In this example, all the indicators and measures implemented showed an excellent safety performance compared to other companies. So why did this accident still occur in spite of all the outstanding indicators Were there no signs indicating that an accident was on its way What was wrong with the safety measures and indicators that they didn t predict the accident ... 

Safety culture, for nuclear power facilities, 17 538 Safety data, developing, 21 844 Safety factors, See also Process safety Safety inspections, OSHA, 21 829 Safety issues/considerations for heated and cryogenic tanks, 24 303 teaching related to, 24 184 Safety issues, emulsion-related, 10 128 Safety measures, improved, 24 184 Safety performance indexes, nuclear power facility, 17 539 Safety regulation(s)... 

The need for metrics is particularly important in process safety, in no small measure because the hazards may not be readily evident. Unlike some other safety risks where dangerous situations are more apparent—such as unsafe scaffolding, unsecured cables, trenches, and other excavations—information on the status and safety of hazardous containment systems (e.g., internal corrosion, an improperly sized relief valve) is not generally visible. Without a constant and reliable flow of information on process safety performance and management systems, leaders may, in essence, be flying blind. 

The authors of the Guidelines for Risk Based Process Safety (KBPS) (CCPS, 2007a) described the need for constant vigilance as the price of maintaining an effective process safety management system. An operator not only must be vigilant (aware of both past and current performance), but must not assume that current performance will be maintained, much less improved, without intentional evaluation of critical parts of systems and their performance. Performance measurement and metrics are a critical part of the RBPS system. 

A company history that includes few serious process safety incidents can lead to complacency and/or misplaced overconfidence without a means to measure process safety performance reliably. 

Different metrics may be used to describe past performance, predict future performance, and encourage behavioral change. They are a means to evaluate the overall system performance and to develop a path toward superior process safety performance. This is accomplished by identifying where the current performance falls within a spectrum of excellent-to-poor performance. Such information will allow executives and site management to develop plans to address the specific improvement opportunities that could lead to measurable improvement in process safety. Good process safety metrics reinforce a process safety culture that promotes the belief that process safety incidents are preventable, that improvement is continuous, and that policies and procedures are necessary and will be followed. Continuous improvement is necessary and any improvement program will be based on measurable elements. Therefore, to continuously improve performance, organizations must develop and implement effective process safety metrics. 

Any organization that wishes to improve and sustain process safety performance must clearly establish its performance goals and objectives. Efforts to sustain and improve process safety performance will require a means to measure and evaluate that performance. Collecting performance information enables an organization to achieve their desired goals and objectives by helping to ... 

---