Companies handling potentially dangerous or sensitive materials, like chemical treatment plants and oil refinement corporations, put a premium on safety. Implementing safety protocols and verifying them during operations is essential. The following are a few safety management ideas and tools for cultivating a safety-oriented atmosphere.

1. Constant and Dedicated Safety Training
A workforce requires precipitous safety training reminders, no matter how much extensive training they have had in the past. This may seem like an obstacle to productivity; however, each worker having a comprehensive understanding of safety standards and protocols saves time and money in the long run. Conducting dedicated safety training courses helps employees realize their active roles in maintaining safe operational standards.

2. Use Safety Management Technology
Technology can play a vital role when it comes to increasing safety at places like oil processing plants where standards and process are strictly documented. Programs like the OpX Process Safety Management system helps by creating a safe working environment by operating intuitively to delegate critical tasks systematically to essential personnel. Any management software should easily scale, have a simplistic roll-out and implementation procedure and reduce the need for burdensome training. With this software, you can address and eliminate compliance gaps as they are discovered.

3. Develop an effective Safety Program
Every processing or refinement plant should have in place or be developing, a safety and health program with policies, a budget, and procedures tailored to their location. This shows an appreciation for the workforce and will help to ensure the security of your resources and their adherence to OSHA standards and guidelines, reinforcing your company’s bottom line. In fact, modeling your intra-company safety guidelines after strict governmental standards, while tailoring them to suit the dynamic of an oil processing firm better, will keep employees hard a work help to avoid daily hazards.

4. Be Active and Pro-active
Taking charge and actively applying safety protocols conveys the fact that you take safety management seriously. You should develop safety initiatives that require the participation of executives, you, and your bosses to take part.  Part of implementing your safety program must include the cultivation of a culture focused on safety, which can only be accomplished with the involvement of leadership. Work closely with the team utilizing training sessions, applying technology and work site analyses whenever possible.

To find out more about how Accupoint Software can help you reach a new standard in production and safety, 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.

The petroleum industry requires dangerous work. Protecting personnel from injury requires rigorous monitoring and training protocols and scrupulous attention to reporting, prevention and data analysis when an accident occurs.  Here are three fundamental concepts to keep in mind when designing an effective injury management program:
 
1) Know your hazards.  Most injuries in the petroleum industry fall into one of two large categories: safety-related injuries and health-related injuries. 
 
Safety-related injuries include those related to:

• Motor Vehicle Accidents
• Contact Injuries
• Fires and Explosions
• Slips, Trips and Falls
• Confined Space Accidents

 
Health-related hazards include:

• Chemical hazards-toxins, irritants, asphyxiants
• Biological hazards-viruses, parasites, bacteria
• Physical hazards-noise, vibrations, radiation
• Economic hazards-overuse and repetitive stress injuries, awkward postures
• Psychosocial hazards-overwork, isolated sites, violence

 
Be aware of where each of these may appear in your site or team workflows and make sure preventive and responsive protocols are in place to deal with each.
 
2) Manage your risks. A robust risk management program has the following 7 steps:

1. Planning-identify and assemble relevant staff, obtain regulatory and process requirements.
2. Risk Identification-use the list above as a baseline and add any other risks particular to your operation.
3. Risk Assessment-what procedures are in place for prevention? how have they failed? what is the result of failure? what new procedures are necessary?
4. Risk Recording-formally document Risk Assessment findings with respect to pertinent regulations and requirements.
5. Risk Control-define and implement new procedures for prevention and mitigation of identified risks.
6. Follow On Assessment-ensure new procedures are in place and evaluate their effectiveness.
7. Monitor and Review-repeat this process at regular intervals to capture new risks, refine procedures and improve outcomes.

 
3) Design a program that works. Effective injury management programs must satisfy the following requirements:

1. Ensure site safety by evaluating all processes and workflows for potential risk and establishing comprehensive prevention and mitigation protocols.
2. Empower all workers to protect themselves by making safety procedures straightforward and as simple as possible; training must be thorough, frequent and accessible.
3. Relates directly to regulatory and audit requirements as well as other internal and external reporting structures, to maximize transparency and minimize administrative burden.
4. Is thoroughly documented so that workers, trainers, executives and external regulators have clearly-defined expectations.

 
If you adhere to the guidelines above when designing and refining your injury management program, you will be able to anticipate problems more effectively and resolve them more efficiently.  For more information on how Accupoint’s web-based solution can help you improve your injury management program, please contact us today.

There is always the potential for accidents in any work environment. Properly utilizing OSHA's LockOut/TagOut (LOTO) procedures can help you greatly reduce the risk of injuries while performing maintenance on hazardous machinery. 

It's more than simply putting a tag or a lock on the machine that's being worked on, though. Making sure that you know all of the required steps of the LOTO procedures will help you ensure you're creating the safest environment possible for your employees. 

• Proper training is key. Making sure all of your employees are trained in the LOTO procedures -- not just the people who will actually work on the machines, is critical. A proper understanding of the entire process will help reduce the likelihood of someone accidentally interfering with any of the key safety steps. 
• Identify all hazardous machinery. Knowing which machines will require the LOTO procedures beforehand will save time and prevent accidents.
• Following ALL of the required steps, not just some of them. Skipping steps can lead to unsafe conditions. They are as follows:

1. Notify all affected employees of the intended LOTO. 
2. Shut down the machine according to proper shutdown procedures. 
3. Identify any and all energy sources to the machine and shut them down as well.
4. Isolate the machine from said energy sources. 
5. LockOut/TagOut the machine by attaching locks and tags to any and all energy sources or switches that could power the machine back on.
6. Safely release any stored energy left in the machine.
7. Test machine to make sure it is completely powerless.
8. Perform maintenance or repairs. 
9. Reverse LOTO procedure so the machine can be put back into service. 

• Don't forget the steps to restarting safely. Removing any nonessential parts before you restart the machine -- tools or spare parts, for instance, is important. Properly reconnecting all energy sources and making sure all safety devices are back in place is critical as well. Finally, don't forget to let all affected employees know the equipment is back in service. 

Training your team to effectively enact the LOTO procedures is important, but don't forget that it's ultimately up to you to make sure they are being followed properly. To learn how Accupoint Software can help improve your LOTO process, please feel free to contact us.

Safety is essential to the petroleum field operation.
 
The importance of collecting and analyzing large amounts of data and providing solutions or recommendations based on that data is essential to the oil and gas industry. Accurate analysis is a make or break scenario for field crews and managers alike. Software that automates inspections of existing equipment and throughput while alerting key employees to problems that may arise is the first line of defense for a streamlined oil and gas operation.
 
Oil and Gas: Risky Heavy Industry.
 
The oil and gas industry has to meet stringent federal and state strictures to operate. Environmental, safety and social aspects of field operations cannot be ignored. The regulations can be convoluted in their complexity. Software applications that monitor all aspects of a drilling venture or transfer station simplify all processes while meeting regulatory criteria effortlessly. Even if you don't know how often you should be checking your release valve, the compliance software will, and can perform that task automatically.
 
Safety inspections are the backbone of a field operation.
 
Without them you can be shut down. Whether the shut-down is triggered by an independent inspection that fails, or a faulty mechanism that went unnoticed, the costs associated with a work stoppage are enormous. When you use inspection compliance software you are providing a vanguard against the possibility of failed inspections or machinery. Every aspect of your operation will be monitored and analyzed. Developing problems can be corrected before they turn into a disaster. Inspections can be scheduled according to your circumstances.
 
Software flexibility, a long-term solution.
 
No one wants to pay thousands for inspection compliance software only to have it become outdated within a few months. Regulatory mandates can change overnight; your inspection compliance software needs to respond to those changes just as quickly. Software with a built-in protocol for shifting and adding data blocks effortlessly solves the problem of the ever-changing regulatory atmosphere for the operator. When you can diversify and streamline your software to fit changing needs, you have a flexible application that works with your operation.
 
The four most important tasks of automated inspection software:

1. Manage all the data and information in a high performance operation seamlessly. Analyze that data and pass information on to key people
2. Perform automated inspections of the entire operation or a specific component of it based on the client’s needs. Generate full reports of these inspections.
3. Be flexible enough to meet compliance standards and regulations that change constantly. The need to reconfigure inspection software in the field is continuous, make sure to choose inspections software that has a flexibility feature.
4. Mitigate risk. By applying inspection software to your operation, you reduce risk one thousand fold. Because these solutions are so inclusive and exhaustive in their data collection and analysis, potentially dangerous problems are caught well before they manifest.

 
Get the help you need.
 
The petroleum industry is filled with complexity and regulatory oversight. Not to mention the dangers associated with field operations. Attempting to run your inspections without the help of compliance software is a one way ticket to failure. When you are ready for more information please contact us.