James Baker – III

You may wonder what is that, Ex-White House Chief of Staff, Former Secretary of State, and Treasury Secretary who served Three American Presidents, (Ford, Reagan, Bush Sr.)has to do with Safety….!!!!

James Baker III, who would turn 87, in a few days time, was the Head of the panel that authored the scorching /Scathing Incident enquiry Report during Jan 2007,(10 years on!) on bp Texas City Disaster of March 2005. The Explosion killed 15 people and injured around 170. Baker spent 100s of hours with team, sub team, came with a 360 Page Report which is an eye opener for every ESH professional to go through and work on improvements at their facilities. The reading of the report is a must, more so if you manage or connected to Process Safety Management of hazardous process and chemicals at every technical function as per OSHA 1910.119 or equivalent. ( I would say, in an Indian crude primitive equivalent, would be if your facility is covered under  Chapter IV A of Factories act in a vanilla version).

As James Baker points out in the bp report, ( as was in other disasters like Piper Alpha in which Lord Cullen  worked a Report) lack of following elements lead to major incidents. The report points out to gaps, in the following elements of Safety program implementation thus leading to the disasters.

 

1. Corporate Safety Culture.
   • Process Safety Leadership.
   • Employee Empowerment
   • Providing resources and ensuring process safety capabilities.
   • Incorporation of Process safety elements in to Management decision process.
2. Process Safety management Systems thro Risk based approach, Communication, Auditing, Learning and stay on course not letting complacency in! 
3. Performance Evaluation, Corrective Action, Corporate Oversight.

“Industry reacts

Many oil companies launched voluntary, internal process safety management (PSM) audits based on the Baker Panel report and also CSB’s overall recommendations. Some have even conducted process safety culture evaluations. The Baker Panel concluded BP emphasized personal safety to the detriment of process safety (OGJ, Jan. 28, 2008, p. 60).

John S. Bresland, CSB chairman and chief executive officer, said, “The Baker Panel report is one of the more significant reports written on the refining industry in the last 10-15 years. Much of the refining industry is taking to heart the recommendations.”

He added that oil companies and chemical companies are studying the reports.

Companies abroad have requested copies of a CSB safety video entitled “Anatomy of a Disaster” about the BP Texas City explosion.

Steve Arendt, a vice-president with ABS Group Consulting, was contracted by the Baker Panel to lead the independent assessment of the five US BP refineries on behalf of the panel. Since then, he has given about 100 presentations to various industries, including talks to more than 40 oil companies.

“The effect of the Baker report and the CSB investigation was the equivalent of an extension of Sarbanes-Oxley to process safety,” Arendt said. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires top executives to certify corporate financial statements. It was enacted as part of the response to questionable accounting practices at companies, including Enron Corp.

“Process safety is now on the radar screen of boards and chief executive officers,” Arendt said. “It became much more of a board-level topic because of the Baker Panel’s conclusions about the organizational culture issues that existed in BP at the time of the accident.”

Companies have used numerous approaches to apply lessons from the reports of the CSB and the Baker Panel, said Arendt, who encourages senior managers of oil companies to connect the lessons from both technical evaluations and culture evaluations.

“If you don’t address organizational culture, then all the problems uncovered from a technical standpoint are likely to return,” Arendt said.”

 So How companies can go about it!!So what is that best in business have that make them excel in Process Safety Management and work in a highly hazardous material, process environment that make safety happen like walk in the park. Implement PSM-MS  (CCPS is a good guideline) which goes beyond OSHA 1910.119 with focus on following elements. Always look and reach out for support /expertise.

#	CCPS process safety elements	OHSAS 1910.119 Linkage	HSE Standards Norms References
	Commitment
1	Process safety culture		HSE Commitment Program. Alignment Contracts.
			Management & Resources ownership. Accountability.
			HSE Improvement Plan
2	Compliance with standards	Process safety information	Legal and other requirements
			New Plant Equipment and Process Design Norms.
			Storage and Handling of Dangerous, Hazardous and Non Hazardous Materials
3	Process safety competency		Basis of Safety
			Selection and Training, competence of personnel
			HSE Management Resources
4	Workforce involvement	Employee participation	Communication and Consultation Standard
			Site HSE/PSM Committee
5	Stakeholder Outreach		Communication and Consultation Standard
			Community Relations Programs /Outreach
			Community HSE Performance Interaction, Feedback Reports
	Understand Hazard and Risk
6	Process knowledge management	Process safety information	Basis of Safety
			Technical Plant Documentation, Dossiers
			Transfer of Technology as applicable
7	Hazard Identification and Risk Analysis	Process hazard analysis	Hazard Studies
			Periodic Hazard Studies
			HSE Assurance Standard, Escalations, Site Risk Portfolio
			Material Hazards Standard
			Fire Risk Management
			HSE Risk Management
			Risk Assessments of Existing operations (Normal, Abnormal, Emergency)
			Major Hazard Facilities
	Manage  & Mitigate Risk
8	Operational Procedures	Operating procedures	Plant SOPs customised to site, not corporate procedures
			Systems of Work Standard
9	Safe Work Practices	Hot Work permit	Permit to Work Suite
			Job Safety & Environment Aspects Impacts.
10	Asset integrity and reliability	Mechanical integrity	Plant and Equipment Integrity program
11	Contractor management	Contractors	Contractors & Suppliers Protocols
			Onsite Contractor SHE Management
12	Training and Performance Assurance	Training	Basis of Safety
			HSE Training
			Selection and Training, communication protocols
13	Management of change	Management of change	Management of Change
			Management of Change Non Technical
14	Operational readiness	Pre- start-up safety review	Capital Projects
15	Emergency management	Emergency planning and response	Emergency Plans
16	Learn & Improve:- Incident investigation	Incident investigation	Incident Management and corrective action
17	Measurement and metrics		HSE Performance and Reporting Program
			HSE Performance Reporting, PSM Metrics
18	Auditing	Compliance audits	HSE Assurance program
			Auditing and Self Assessment Norms
			Corporate HSE Audits.
			Internal HSE Audits
19	Management review and continuous improvement		HSE Performance and Reporting Linkage to PSM Metrics

• Leadership is very essential to carry out safety programs. Good leaders develop an amazing safety culture. Great leaders have ability to spot potential issues miles ahead and learn from it!!! 

  

  

• Great organisation work culture is all about focused  on learning curve with norms, embracing standards ahead of the curve. They take advantage of best in business protocols.

  

  

  

  Risk Portfolio from Site (Normal ops, Emergency situation) rolled up to Country, Business managed Annually.  You want to sleep peacefully, Sweat a lot in working, Risk assessments!

  Process Safety Culture Essential ingredients:-

• Establish Safety as a core value—-> Values don’t change over time come what may!
• Provide Strong, Visible,Felt Leadership—-> Walk the talk, keep track; Stay on top.
• Empower Individuals to be successful in their roles, Questioning attitude.
• Always Maintain a sense of vulnerability –>Murphy is always around. Be Humble.
• Formalise PSM culture work on perception survey, opinion look for blind spots.
• Let experts to experts job. Listen and encourage Diverse opinion but data matters.
• Open, honest, Transparent communications, interactions. 
• Openly share best practices, encourage implementation beyond organisation to community, neighbouring industries. 
• Build, sustain Mutual Trust.

How to execute PSM:-

1. Don’t Reinvent the Wheel:- (Courtesy ABS consulting which helped Baker in bp, Investigation) Seek Experts. 

2) Synergize the process, work for common aspects to implement with current HSE-MS and other Business systems. 

3) Embrace the guidelines, documents, go beyond compliance, in absence of local regulations work through global best practices Think Global Act Local.  (The Image courtesy, Mhd. Rehman – Houston) 

4) Embrace Reality:- Despite working best practices, due to external factors which are beyond an organisation, individual controls, things can slip due to following factors and can derail process safety management program. These would have been some of the latent reasons behind bp Texas City, Chernobyl or Piper Alpha. Watch out for these and ensure that guards are put in place.

• Overload due to too many initiatives losing focus, flavor of the month to drown signal from the noise.
• Change of personnel, in environment where systems are absent personal expertise carries the game. When they change, system just buckles down! Watch out! Great companies make things happen due to systems, not individuals! 
• Absence of continuity in leadership, systems, hallmark of success in many organisations are continuity in people, program, process such that it becomes second nature,mundane.
• Complacency, when things appear to go extremely well, expect it to nosedive and go bad, NO NEWS IS BAD NEWS! 
• Confusing data! inconsistent representation of data, metrics and unit of measure.
• No Knowledge sharing:- Greatest derailer of all, Knowledge is the only resource that doubles when given. Many don’t see that way due to personal insecurity.
• Confusion in reporting norms:- Work on one company ONE DATA. One protocol. Language used should be consistent.
• Loss of Data /Information. Always work back up, restoration mechanism.

Process Safety Management when executed well can lead to safer workplace, improving productivity. 

Good luck in implementation. God Bless.

Karthik.

3/4/17, 0835am.