Achieving Operational Excellence by a Robust Sustainable Safety (process and people) Program

Abstract

Corporations have been consistently involved in the areas of process safety, people safety and risk management for several decades. These corporations have witnessed major and minor incidents, and their learnings have been consistently captured under various initiatives, some of which have also been responsible for introducing new regulatory regimes and have been game changers for the way companies operate. Another trend, emerged in the industries is the concept of sustainability. Corporations have begun emphasizing their sustainability performance is tied into their safety program (process and people) which assists in reaching their goal of operational excellence. Hence, when a robust proactive risk management exercise is initiated during the concept of inception of the facility, and then carried out effectively and continuously until the demolition and decommissioning of the facility, it renders success towards the excellence program. Another key component for success in safety program, is the appropriate management of safety culture within the organization. This includes the staff and the leadership. Irrespective of the hierarchy, it is important that the members of the organization understand and respect the hazards of their operations, on a day to day basis. These hazards maybe related to people safety or process safety. This paper will discuss the influence of safety culture and leadership; along with the influence through the safety management systems (people and process safety management) that fall under the health safety and environment HSE domain of the organization. The authors will share their experiences and observations from the various sectors, and draw analogies. Their case studies will be examples of how to make these management aspects can be sustainable, without any compromises or breaches in the safety culture of the organization.