Merry Christmas to our Ammonia Refrigeration Process Safety community!

 

Well, this year has been interesting, eh? The hits keep coming it seems, and it was no different to those of us in the Process Safety field. Behind the scenes, we’ve been working on a fairly major set of improvements to the PSM system. Originally scheduled for August, we’ve finally managed to push it across the finish line just in time for the Holidays!

Significant improvements were made to the core of the system (The SOPs and ITPMRs) through an unprecedented amount of end-user feedback. Remember, this system relies on the feedback of operators, technicians, service personnel, and Process Safety professionals to improve.

All updated documents have the 122520 date-code, but here’s a run-down:

  • Minor updates to definitions file
  • All element written plans:
    • Where it was appropriate, did a little harmonization with the newest IIAR Process Safety Management & Risk Management Program templates. (There isn’t really anything they cover we don’t, but there are some places we harmonized the phrasing where we cover the same ground)
    • Ensured all element Written Plans refer to the ROSOP QA – Document Quality Control section in the Document Management
    • Minor editing / formatting improvements
  • Minor change to Operator Training element to ensure that Initial Training on Incident Investigation includes a review of recent and routinely recurring incidents.
  • Improvements to the II element written plan’s “Incident Investigation Process Flowchart”
  • SOPs
    • Minor changes to the Implementation Policy: Review and Annual Certification to harmonize with the IIAR guidance
    • Annual SOP Certification letter improved to correlate with the SOP element Written Plan more closely
    • The SOP element Written Plan Implementation Policy: SOP Authoring / Generation section now provides “Best Practices” standard language for warnings, step comments, step instructions, etc.
    • ALL SOP Templates now:
      • Use the “Best Practices” language.
      • Include better language tying them to the ITPMRs
      • Reference ROSOP-PPE in the Safety considerations section
      • Additional Equipment Considerations added to harmonize with the IIAR guidance
    • ROSOP PPE slightly improved with reference to LEO
    • ROSOP LOTO improved with improved language from end-users
    • Minor updates to ROSOP QA – Document Quality Control section.
    • ROSOP LEO streamlined and simplified with a good amount of end-user feedback
    • New ROSOP ITPM based on significant end-user operator input and feedback (See MI section below)
  • MI / ITPMRs
    • All ITPMRs now provided as PDF forms as well as Word documents
    • All ITPMRs have improved references including to the new ROSOP ITPM
    • All ITPMRs now have a space to record task hours
    • All frequency ITPMRs are now in a single document. For example, previously we would have a 30-day, 90-day, and 365-day ITPMR for condensers. Now we have a single ITPMR for condensers with all the items and you simply use the applicable sections. This allowed each step in the ITPMRs to have its own unique step code. This is important because….
    • A new SOP was created called ROSOP ITPM which includes additional information for less-skilled operators and technicians. This new ROSOP also is used as a repository of best-practices and collected knowledge from field operators. Relevant guidance from applicable IIAR standards was also included directly in the SOP where we thought it useful to those performing the MI work. A group of contractor service technicians and end-user operators contributed to the creation of this SOP and We FULLY expect this SOP to grow and improve as we get even more field use and operator feedback.

 

To implement:

  • Written Plans: Follow the Implementation Policy: Managing Procedure / Document Changes. These should be straight-forward.
  • Definitions file: Replace with the new one
    1. For the new PPE and LOTO templates, either adopt them as-is or incorporate their changes to your existing PPE & LEO SOPs
    2. For all your equipment SOPs, consider updating them to the new language during your next scheduled revision / team review.
    3. For the NEW ROSOP-ITPM and PSSRs see the MI section below
  • MI: Replace the existing ITPMRs with the new ones, providing training that when the CMMS (or other scheduling system) calls for a frequency based ITPMR, just use the equipment specific ITPMR and fill it out to the appropriate frequency.
  • Provide training on the new ROSOP ITPM. Please collect feedback for improvements so we can all improve its performance.