Process Safety Culture

Presented at 15th National Conference

on
PROCESS SAFETY MANAGEMENT
at
V.P.M.s Polytechnic, Thane
4th, January 2014
VIPIN B. DOSHI
R E T I R E D V.P., E H S &
RESPONSIBLE CARE
EXCEL INDUSTRIES LTD.
MUMBAI, INDIA
vbdoshi@gmail.com

Let us begin by remembering TREVOR KLETZ the person

who is credited with making the world realize need of
PROCESS SAFETY CULTURE

Lack of Process Safety Culture

3

HISTORY OF INCIDENCES
BHOPAL 1984
PIPER ALPHA 1988
BP REFINERY 2005
VENEZUELA 2012
FORMOSA PLASTIC 2008
------ And many more
Even NASA failed in
Challenger in 1986 and
Columbia in 2003 due to
lack of safety culture Filed
to learn even after 17 years.

There is failure and even to-day Process Safety is not

taken seriously

Chemical Industry in India & Need for

PROCESS SAFETY CULTURE
4

Indian chemical industry is poised for

phenomenal growth as per paper of DCPC.

There is also huge export potential as the
west is shying away from growth of chemical
industry.
Chemicals are needed for satisfying needs of
growing population.
Process safety is essential to attain this
without adverse effects on people and
environment.
As already told by Dr. Kletz, Process Safety
needs culture apart from technology.

PROCESS SAFETY CULTURE

5
PROCESS

PROCESS SAFETY CULTURE

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It is defined by CCPS as The combination of grou

LEGAL ASPECTS
7

In wake of the Bhopal Incident, legislation

developed world over.

In US OSHA PSM standard guides for
development of Process Safety Management
System.
Our Factories Act in 1987 introduced section on
Hazardous Processes Sec 41- B to H; in
Maharashtra Rule 73; But the focus is on fixing
responsibility.
This style misses out on development of Process
Safety Management System as well as Culture.

Why Go for Process Safety Culture?

8

Chemical process industry is vulnerable. It

is in the interest of management to

initiate steps to inculcate process safety
culture from early stage. Because, in case
of any catastrophic event taking place the
legal, business and financial
consequences are to be faced by the
management. Disaster can strike
unannounced.
Sadly this is not understood by many business
managers.

BARRIERS TO PROCESS SAFETY CULTURE

9

General

Many smaller industries with limited means

Industry mindset of meeting the minimum statutory
requirement
Being under developed. Even our government has scant
regard to develop proper infrastructure for industry. So,
why should I Industry Manager stretch myself ?

Technical

Process Safety = HAZOP!! + Automation, SIL Level

Pressure to meet production targets
Lack of information on how to inculcate Process Safety
Culture

Some Expert Opinion on Barriers

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Ramabhadran Srinivasan of DuPont has this to say

Success in operations usually is quantified in terms of

capacity utilization, prevention of unplanned shutdowns
and managing operating costs. Some sites mistakenly
treat the number of personal safety incidents as a
measure of process safety. Much less attention is paid
to culture as a measure of success and the influence of
culture on performance, knowledge retention and
operational sustainability.
Dr. Jayraman Gopal of Essar
We need to define this in practical language so that the
same is understood by wide cross-section of employees.

To DEVELOP PROCESS SAFETY CULTURE

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The initiative for development of sound Process Safety

culture has to come from the TOP MANAGEMENT.
Know the difference of culture and techniques.
Safety to have same priority as any other business activity.
Transparency & freedom to voice a dissent.
Do not normalize deviations. Use deviations to locate
problems and take corrective/preventive actions.
No fear of backlash for sharing bad information
Curb short cuts
Use of leading indicators such as number of suggestions,
numbers of audits & actions on audit findings, frequency of
safety meetings etc.
LEADERSHIP by top management.

Scott Stricoff of Behaviour Safety Technology on LEADERSHIP

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LEADERSHIP for PROCESS SAFETY CULTURE:

Anticipation:Recognizing and acting on the weak signals that indicate potential for events
Inquiry:Ensuring the right questions are asked and the right analyses are done
Execution:Using systems consistently and reliably
Resilience:Enabling workers to have the knowledge and willingness to intervene on small

issues and prevent them from becoming big issues

Expectation from a Safety Leader

Have the conviction to lead safety.Process safety needs someone who will lead because he
or she has a deeply held belief that its the right thing to do.
Understand how process safety works.Effective process safety leaders continually discuss
exposure and risk.
Possess (and practice) great leadership skills.Safe companies have great safety leaders.
Effective safety leaders share common practices such as vision, credibility, communication,
collaboration, feedback, action orientation and accountability.
Have the ability to influence people.Great leaders use a transformational style to engage
people. Process safety leaders must enable people to know and do the things that execute
process safety systems reliably.

To CONCLUDE
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Indian chem. ind. poised for growth

Need for Process Safety Culture for growth with safety
Culture can be imparted, taught, cultivated
No incentive for process safety in our system. However, the

ind. management should support process safety in own

interest
Barriers due to ind. mindset & poor infrastructure as also due
to inadequate understanding and low technical capability
Pressure of production targets also a barrier
Accepting importance of safety, LEADING and having
transparent responsive organization required to instill process
safety culture
Finally it needs leadership to bring in the culture.

References
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Dept of Chemicals & Petrochemicals, Govt of India, Draft

National Chemical Policy 2012.

Centre for Chemical Process Safety.
Ramabhadran Srinivasan, Orchestrate an Effective Safety
Culture, Chemical Processing, Oct 18, 2012.
Dr. Jayraman Gopal, Building a safety culture in the
organization : Issues & Concerns,Chemical News, October 2013
Scott Stricoff, Safety Leadership: What Process Safety Needs
from a Leader, Safety+Health, June 1, 2013.

With this we proceed to next presentation on

Process Safety Culture Implementation