Pre-Startup Safety Reviews

While tools are often conceived to perform a single function – a hammer to drive a nail or a saw to cut wood – they can, with time and ingenuity, evolve.

While a process safety manager’s toolbelt differs from a carpenter’s, the same principle applies. Pre-Startup Safety Reviews (PSSR) are a simple, yet highly valuable tool for PSM personnel.

PSSRs are intended to be the final check of new or modified equipment to confirm all appropriate elements of process safety have been addressed satisfactorily, and the facility is safe to operate – meaning, PSSRs help reduce the possibility of introducing unknown hazards or unmitigated risks with the new or modified equipment.

PSSRs have proven to be valuable, versatile tools and are now utilized and/or required by facility owners for many additional and novel applications, including:

• Complex replacement-in-kind maintenance activities
• Capital projects where PSM critical equipment is installed/modified
• Processes and/or utilities that utilize rented or leased equipment
• Start-up activities after both major turnarounds or following an emergency shutdown
• Maintenance work on equipment that requires opening the process containing equipment or process lines (a first break)
• Restarting a facility after an extended shutdown period when the integrity of the plant may have deteriorated, new operations and maintenance personnel have been assigned to the unit whose training and experience must be reviewed, and/or other external factors may have changed (e.g., the quality of the streams feeding the unit or the utilities have changed properties)

There is no better way to build a flexible, adaptable PSSR process than through an integrated PSM software solution linked to key PSM elements touched by PSSRs (including MOC, PSI, process hazard analysis, operating procedures, training, emergency planning and response, etc.), like OESuite^®. Through the OESuite^® PSSR Module, users can utilize various fit-for-purpose checklists consistent with the complexity of the change that can also be time-and-date stamped. Through OESuite^®, users can also:

• Discern between pre- and post-commissioning activities and segment who is required to interact by role
• Automate potential hazard and work notifications for all affected parties
• Link equipment, documents, and drawings to the PSSRs

OESuite^® is built to deliver true visibility and powerful real-time insights into your PSM data to empower your entire organization. Are you ready to prevent these incidents by ensuring safety procedures are completed, reviews are conducted, action items are resolved, and people reach data-driven decisions faster with more point-of-work support?

Connect with an OS expert to learn more