Chapter 6. Safety Audit

6.1. Safety Audit

6.2. Objectives

6.3. Advantages and Disadvantages

6.4. For New Facilities

6.5. Existing Facilities

6.6. For Existing Facilities

6.7. Existing Facility Safety Audit

6.8. Existing Facility Safety Audit(contd.)

6.9. Final Report Documentation

6.1. Safety Audit

• A hazard identification technique used to inspect a plant or process

• An auditor reviews critical plant features to verify or inspect

Effectiveness of appropriate design criteria
Operating conditions and procedures
Safety measures
Related risk management programs

• Exhibits a Level of Detail that Reflects the Level of Complexity of Process

A safety audit is a hazard identification technique used to inspect a plant or process. Typically, the safety audit is led by an auditor or an audit team. This team is responsible for conducting interviews as well as reviewing critical plant features. They often review many aspects of the plant, some of which include design criteria, operating conditions, and safety.

6.2. Objectives

• Certify that a plant’s safety program is in place

• Certify that the safety program is implemented effectively

The overall objective of the safety audit is to certify that a plant’s safety program is in place and is being implemented effectively.

6.3. Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages
Helps improve safety awareness of operating personnel
Addresses possible hazards to prevent future incidents

Disadvantages
Cannot indicate future frequency of problem occurrence

There are many advantages to a safety audit. It helps improve safety awareness of operating personnel, and it addresses possible hazards that may prevent future incidents. For instance, it may recognize the need for new equipment or it may discover that a key element in a safety procedure is missing.

Although the safety audit is effective in identifying a problem, its disadvantage is that it cannot indicate future frequency with which the problem may occur.

6.4. For New Facilities

• Basis of design
• Process description
• Process flow diagrams
• Equipment data sheets
• P & ID’s
• Maintenance Procedures
• Site Location Drawing
• Electrical area classification drawings
• Specifications for Piping, Controls, & Instrumentation
• Emergency preparedness information

When building a new facility, the safety audit requires a review of the design information. Some of the information that must be reviewed includes the information listed here. Safety audits are performed in conjunction with other hazard identification techniques such as What-If or HAZOP analyses.

6.5. Existing Facilities

Safety Audit Objective
 To assist in upgrading existing facilities to an acceptable level of safety

For existing facilities, the safety audit objective is to upgrade the plant to an acceptable level of safety

6.6. For Existing Facilities

• Visual inspection of plant
• Review of plant operating & maintenance logs
• Comparison of actual plant to design
• Comparison of design specification to procedures
• Interviews with plant operators and maintenance
• Detailed final report

For existing facilities, the safety audit team must inspect the plant visually and review the plant configuration and operating conditions. Also, they must review the plant operating and maintenance logs. In addition, they must compare the actual plant to design documentation as well as compare the design specifications to the procedures. Then interviews with plant operators and maintenance crews must be conducted. A detailed final report is prepared documenting all findings. Positive indications of safe operations are included, and recommendations addressing hazardous conditions should be supported with justifications.

6.7. Existing Facility Safety Audit

 1. Are procedures available and used when isolating equipment for maintenance?

2. Is Safety Department responsible for work order signature, or is this done by operations or maintenance personnel?

3. Are blind lists made for each isolation job, who keeps them, and who checks that all are installed or removed?

4. Is safety and life-saving equipment inspected on a regular basis, and who is responsible for this work?

5. Are operators and maintenance personnel instructed and trained in firefighting and first-aid procedures?

6. Are plant personnel trained to respond to major emergency situations?

This slide shows some questions often asked in an existing facility safety audit.

6.8. Existing Facility Safety Audit (continued)

7. What is the level of firefighting equipment or capability in the plant?

8. Is an automatic gas or vapor detection system installed showing location and alarm points in control room?

9. Is the fire water system tested on a regular basis?

10. Are steam or water curtains provided for critical equipment and areas?

11. Are automatic fire-extinguishing systems installed(carbon dioxide, foam)?

12. Is safety consciousness emphasized?

13. Are good safety records rewarded in any way?

This slide shows some additional questions often asked in an existing facility safety audit, addition to the ones given on the previous slide. Additional questions and sample checklists are given by Greenberg and Cramer.

6.9. Final Report Documentation

Conclusions must be documented in a report.

Report Includes:

• Recommendations
• Overview of the plant and process
• Level of performance identified

Report Also:

• Identifies focus of future audits
• Acknowledges previous modifications

The last step in completing a safety audit is to record the findings in a final report. This report must give an overview of the plant and process, positive feedback, concerns and suggestions. In addition, the final report should identify the areas for future safety audits. It also acknowledges focal points from prior safety audits to see if modifications made to the plant were justified. A note should be made that in making recommendations for addressing potential hazards safety should be the primary focus, not cost. The recommendations that are made should be within reason.