1. Maintenance of equipment and machines It is a fact that equipment will wear out at some point. It is of great importance to maintain equipment at standard levels. It the responsibility of the company to ensure proper safety measures are in place rather than waiting for regulatory agencies to spot-check their compliance. 2. Training and certification Employees of should be trained on safety the safety management system. It is of no importance, for example, to have fire extinguishers on the rig if employees don't know how to use them. 3. Use of experts When making operational decisions, experts can help the management by advising it on both short term and long term consequences. Safety engineers should be involved in decisions such as developing new operational workflows and documentation. 4. Observing industrial standards Implementing and maintaining global quality, environmental and safety standard will provide a framework to identify and mitigate risks at the point of operation. 5. Change management Risks are inherent whenever there is change. Changes that have safety implications should be to thoroughly evaluated, and have a comprehensive hazard analysis performed. It is also of great importance to document the management of change process so that a gap analysis can be performed subsequent to implementation. In short, managing risk requires proactive and preventive measures to protect your organization’s and customer’s interests. Detection and mitigation of risk potential should be at the core of your total risk assessment strategy.
For more information on how Accupoint Software can help you manage your risk mitigation efforts, please email or call us at (800) 563-6250. The current Covid 19 pandemic reminds us employees, operations, supply chains and customer relations can all be affected by unplanned disruptions. That is why every business needs a plan to meet potential interruptions with clarity, confidence and calm. That being said, the development of a set of comprehensive contingency plans comes in handy. A good contingency plan will identify likely disruptions and identify develop action items designed to minimize the impact on operational performance.
To that end, we have detailed 8 steps for effective contingency planning:
By following the steps outlined above, you will be well on your way to creating effective contingency plans that chart realistic tactics and achievable goals in addressing potential operational disruptions. To learn more about how Accupoint can help streamline your contingency planning, please contact us today. Stay safe and healthy! During the stages of conception, designing, building, operating, and decommissioning in the petroleum industry, a quantitative risk analysis is a primary tool used to analyze the safety and risk management in an effort to control hazards and operate safely. The quantitative risk analysis can identify potential hazards, determine the likelihood of them occurring, and the consequences of the hazard should it arise.
Why Quantify Risk? Your company needs to be reliable and safe in the competitive petroleum industry. The potential harm to employees, the environment, assets, reputation and the local community should be priority number one. How Do You Quantify Risk? In most scenarios, the use of a HAZID can be applied. A HAZID can help identify the potential risks during installation or operation of your company's work. Often, a hazard can become a series of hazards as they break down into a plethora of hazards, also known as an event tree. That is, when one operation breaks down, the HAZID can pinpoint the likelihood of the consequential events that may happen. Not only can the HAZID determine what might happen next, the HAZID can also quantify the probability of the events to follow. Planning for the Future With the risk analysis tools in place, your company can easily plan for the future by identifying your risks and quantifying the likelihood of their occurrence. With proper risk management, your company can avoid unnecessary costs, downtime, and injury to workers. For more information on how Accupoint’s solutions can help you manage your risk assessment process, please contact us today. The Department of Labor states that on-the-job fatality rates are seven times higher for oil and gas extraction workers than all other industries. The only solution to this serious problem is proactive compliance with a comprehensive safety and health management program. Continual risk identification, analysis and policy enforcement are the keys to keeping workers safe and avoiding operational downtime.
Risk Assessments Hazards in oil and gas industry are divided between safety and injury dangers and health and illness hazards. Front-line supervisors should work with safety managers to conduct risk assessments that are founded on historical experience, analytical methods and field knowledge and judgement. A risk assessment will ask three basic questions for each possible event: what can go wrong, how likely will it occur and what are the impacts. Both qualitative and quantitative answers offer unique value. Safety planning and risk assessments require that everyone involved understands the objectives, the methods, the resources required and how the results will be applied. Standard Evaluation Methods A risk assessment generally involves four basic steps: hazard identification, frequency projection, consequence assessment and risk evaluation. Hazard identification methods include literature research, safety audits, periodic walk-throughs and what-if brainstorming. Popular tools include FMEA, HAZOP and HAZID. Frequency assessment methods include fault tree, event tree, human reliability and common cause failure analysis tools. Consequence assessment methods include source term, aquatic transport, atmospheric dispersion and blast and thermal radiation models. Popular evaluation methods include risk profiles, indexes, matrixes and density curves. The Hazard Identification (HAZID) Technique HAZID is a safety tool to describe activities that identify risks and associated events. Offshore petroleum facilities often use HAZIDs to identify potential hazards to personnel, such as injuries and illness, to the environment, such as spills and pollution, and operational issues, such as delays and production losses. Offshore petroleum leaders often use the HAZID technique to analyze operational procedures on vessels and machinery. A HAZID planning session will involve an interdisciplinary team that includes those who have experience with facility design, such as engineering, and facility operation, such as veteran employees. Together, they will use checklists to methodically brainstorm and identify potential hazards associated with each part of the system. A what-if analysis uses subjective questioning to ponder potential performance problems and their consequences. For example, if an intake air filter is blocked, this will reduce the air flow through the compressor, which will consume more energy and lead to functional inefficiencies. The solution is through monthly inspections and scheduled filter replacements. Contact us today to learn how Accupoint can streamline your safety, compliance and risk assessments processes. "That'll never happen." Famous last words. Things can and will go wrong. The job of the business owner and engineers is to anticipate, evaluate, and mitigate possible risks in the operation. Especially if those risks include the potential of loss of life, facilities, and equipment. Risk management and risk assessment are tools to assist companies in understanding and mitigating potential problems.
Anticipate the Risks: This involves identifying the risks to the operation. The best way to start is to construct what-if scenarios. What if there was a major lightning strike on the north tower? What if a blowout preventer failed? What if our computer controllers are hacked? Identify key safety processes and discuss what would happen if each failed. Include a review of injury, maintenance, and incident reports, the near misses as well as the losses. The best brainstorming sessions include staff from all parts of the operation, including the front line workers. They often know the dangers better than management because they've been on the receiving end of the close calls. Evaluate the Risks: Separate the risks into groups (some may fall into more than one category.) As an example, headings might include loss of life/injury, loss of the facility, loss of equipment, loss of data, loss of income, environmental damage, etc. Go through each category and rank the risks from highest damage potential to lowest. The same incident may rank differently in different categories. This can lead to some sobering realizations such as if there was a fire at the south entrance, everyone in the maintenance bay would be trapped. The next step requires expertise and analysis. Each risk needs to be considered by its probability of happening. For example, a natural disaster causing major property and environmental damage is going to have a higher probability in areas prone to hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes. Conversely, equipment that is new, well-maintained, and has little or no record of operating problems is going to have a lower probability of failure. The goal is to create a risk matrix. At a glance, a company can sort out high damage, but low probability occurrences from the more immediate risks faced by the company. In short, the risk matrix identifies the likelihood of a failure and the damages if it happens. This can be a difficult procedure. Software experts have gathered data about everything from weather or injury reports and the programs can assist you in assigning probabilities of different types of failures. Creation of a risk matrix may start out as yellow pads and whiteboards, but in modern business, it will end up as a computerized summary identifying the company's key vulnerabilities. Mitigate the Risks: This isn't just good business, its good stewardship. Once the risk matrix identifies areas of improvement, the company can target resources to lessening or eliminating the problems. Rather than trying to hurricane-proof the entire facility, it could be as simple as clearing out trees and bushes around key valves and equipment. If there is a history of injuries, a job process can be reworked or additional safety equipment installed. Computers can be upgraded and expanded to include easily accessible cloud storage. Comprehensive risk management reviews can also weed out inefficient tottering equipment that is costing the company more in dollars and danger than it is worth. Performing a risk evaluation is a major project. Depending on the size and complexity of the operation, it is a significant commitment of manpower and resources. But the payoff is increased efficiency, lower accident rates, and real savings by avoiding unnecessary downtime and repairs. Bonuses include a better relationship with safety and environmental regulatory agencies and potentially lower insurance rates. Contact us to discuss solutions to help streamline and improve your risk management system. |
