The Benefits of exida’s Site Safety Index (SSI)

Nov 21, 2019

[:en][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]New reports out now are claiming that an aging, failed elbow pipe appears to be the initial cause of a June 21 fire and subsequent explosions that injured five people at the largest oil refinery on the East Coast, federal investigators said.

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board released a preliminary factual findings report which discoveries the remnants of the failed elbow pipe, had worn to .012 inches (about the thickness of paper) likely contributing to the release of the flammable vapor.  After the elbow pipe failed around 4 a.m., a cloud of flammable vapor ignited. Investigators said there were three explosions that followed including the last explosion of a surge drum around 4:22 a.m. that sent three large chunks of debris weighing between seven and 17 tons (15 metric tons) flying into the air.  The five workers injured in the fire received treatment on scene for minor injuries, and company officials said the explosions caused severe damage to the 150-year-old site, which could have been much worse.

However, this situation also is easily avoidable, and it all depends on a site’s “Safety Culture.” Not only does each company, but each site has a different and individual “Safety Culture.”  There can be differences between site training, site procedures and simply the attitude on safety along with other variables. For example, one site could be very strict on when and how to proof test and assess end of life, where its sister site, may be more relaxed and push the test off a few more months. We have seen differences between 2x-6x the amount of failures on the same device depending on each site’s “Safety Culture.”

exida defines the safety culture variable in a four level model called the “Site Safety Index (SSI).

SSI is a quantitative model that allows the impact from what many people call “safety culture.”  SSI can provide a way to show the cost impact of alternative operational and maintenance processes.

SSI can be comprehensively evaluated with an on-site third party audit.

If the safety culture or SSI was evaluated and addressed at the largest oil refinery on the East Coast, it is possible that this aging pipe would have been exposed before the leak and explosion occurred. Thinking about maintenance and operations, before an accident, could have prevented the damage which caused the company to close down the refinery, declare bankruptcy and start laying off workers in August 2019.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][:zh][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]No! They are not Inherently Safe!

A collaborative robot is intended to work “collaboratively” with a person. i.e. share a common workspace. It is force and speed limited by design to minimize any potential hazard. Collaborative robots fit the application where the task cannot be easily or cost effectively automated. They are easy to deploy, program and repurpose. Collaborative robots are new to everyone including the standards agencies.

A hazard and risk assessment is required that assesses the robot and the environment that it is deployed in. Just as any other robot, things such as collisions, speed, type of end effector and worksite need to be evaluated. Collaborative robots have their own sorts of collisions and hazards. They may not be as severe, but they still exist.

This all comes down to risk and the amount of risk that you are willing to accept! The diagram below shows the high-level steps for doing a Hazard and Risk Assessment. When following the steps, if you assess the risk and find it to be acceptable (your companies acceptable risk norms) then you are done. No need to add any risk reduction.

The next best approach is to determine if protective measures other than a Safety Function can reduce the risk to an acceptable level. If not, then you must assign a SIL and implement a safety function that will provide the required risk reduction.

exida can effectively train your team to perform machine hazard and risk assessments to identify all possible hazards and estimate the risk for each hazard. Specifically, exida coaches you through the process of evaluating the risk, developing and implementing risk reduction options. exida can also educate your team in multiple approaches to SIL target selection. These are just some of the things exida does to ensure you are on the right path![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row] [:]

Keep Updated.