Ebook: Audits and Assessments of Process Facilities

Evaluations of risk management programs can take one of two forms. The first is a formal audit in which a management program is measured against an external standard such as a regulation or corporate benchmark. An audit compares what is with what should be. It is fundamentally a pass/fail test. For example, paragraph 1910.119(f)(1) of the OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) Process Safety Standard states that:

The employer shall develop and implement written operating procedures that provide clear instructions for safely conducting <an> . . . Initial startup;

An auditor who is examining a facility's operating procedures will check that they do contain instructions to do with initial startups. If they do, then the audit requirement has been met. If the auditor finds a deficiency between the requirements of the standard and what is actually taking place then he or she generates a finding or a gap. An auditor's job is to objectively uncover deviations from the standards - no more, no less. The auditor is interested primarily in the letter of the law.

The second type of evaluation is less formal. A reviewer provides an opinion as to the quality of the risk management program. In the case of initial startup procedures, for example, a reviewer will provide an opinion as to whether or not those procedures will actually help ensure that the facility starts safely and according to plan. He or she will develop that opinion by asking questions to do with the level of detail, the writing style and the clarity of the instructions. Based on the answers to those questions, he will provide an opinion as to the effectiveness of the initial start-up procedures. (The terms Verification and Validation are sometimes used to make the same distinction between audits and assessments. Verification is concerned with ensuring that a facility meets the letter of the law or regulation; validation determines whether it is meeting the spirit of the same law.)

This ebook discusses both types of evaluation as they pertain to process operations in the energy and chemical industries.

A free download of the first four pages is available here.