Before we start, note that the priority for Process Safety issues is much more skewed toward the engineered features in process safety. For Occupational Safety, the priority should be: Optimize human factors to as good as possible to consistently achieve the lowest average base human error rate of 1/100 (ish)... this residual error rate is [...]
It is important to know what certification means. Mostly, certification is just a way for the certifier to make money off of the unsuspecting purchasing. Certification in this or that is big business. But in most cases, certification of proficiency is not easily possible. This is why the folks in the Chemical Process Safety field [...]
It is best to discard the terminology of Unsafe Act and Unsafe Condition. If you use Error instead of unsafe act, for instance, then you can lump ALL incidents into one database, including those that appear to be only quality, reliability, process safety, etc. (those that may appear to have no relationship to occupational health [...]
Our staff has led about 10,000 HAZOP/PHA over the past 20+ years. We found in the early 1990s that using a risk matrix "live" in a HAZOP/PHA will actually hurt the brainstorming (producing less scenarios) because the team waste more time on scoring schemes while in the use of a risk matrix. Further, about 50% [...]
Here is an excellent causation model that maps a causal factor (cause) down to the management system level (root cause level): http://www.process-improvement-institute.com/_downloads/Root_Cause_Chart_PII_R6_Complimentary.pdf (This chart includes references to the original work in the legend.) It differs substantially from Dan Peterson’s approach and many others (including ILCI / SCAT) in that it is all focused on the [...]