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ComplianceESGJanuary 11, 2021

Process Safety Cards – Guestblog series Play & Learn, part 6

Figure 1: Process Safety Cards, click here for a full version of the image

Increase awareness & understanding with playing cards and bowties.

It is vital that all stakeholders – both internal and external (who may fall outside corporate process safety training strategies) are engaged and equipped to ensure they play their part in sustaining the integrity of assets that they may be involved with and/or be impacted by.

To this end, Process Safety Integrity has developed a tool: Process Safety Cards. These cards (in a familiar format e.g. for playing poker, see the image below) have memorable images representing 52 typical Loss of Containment (LoC) events to remind a broad range of personnel of potential Major Accident (Process Safety) scenarios and increase their vigilance to such events & their potential causes so they can be promptly addressed – in crude terms “Know your enemy”.

Figure 2: Process Safety Card in a familiar format

Gamification is not new but can be expensive and take time to play board games. These cards offer an organic approach that can develop with community feedback.

Process Safety Cards – The game

Users or ‘Players’ are encouraged & helped to learn & apply the principles using this simple mnemonic:

  • REMEMBER Events
  • RECOGNISE Threats
  • RESPECT Barriers
  • REPORT Concerns

Thereafter, there is an obligation on the duty-holder to:

  • RESPOND to Feedback
  • RECOVER Protection

Visualization is used to get and keep the workforce onboard with the process safety mission by challenging them with these simple (and familiar) questions:

  • Do you UNDERSTAND what can wrong i.e. HAZARDS?
  • Do you KNOW what the systems are to prevent this from happening i.e. BARRIERS?

Summarizing scenarios

Each card (LoC) event has an associated 1-page summary which includes typical (suggested) Causes (Threats) and Controls (Barriers) and visual representations of the scenarios in bowtie format, for example:

Figure 3: Summary of Causes and Controls, click here for a full version of the image

Bowties are developed up to the Top Event (where control of the Hazard is lost) as the right-hand side will be Hazard and application specific (since the Consequences and Mitigation barriers depend on the materials and their process conditions).
Barriers and their degradation factors & types are shown to help ‘players’ respect them to ensure that their acts or omissions i.e. what they do or don’t do, does not result in barriers with reduced effectiveness because they are:

  • DEGRADED Operated beyond design limits or life
  • DEFEATED Overridden or inappropriately adjusted (poor temporary MoC)
  • DELETED Removed (poor permanent MoC)
  • DISCOUNTED Not fitted (poor Design Control or Action Management)

Barrier vulnerabilities are graphically represented on the Threat line as follows:

These utilize Barrier Failure Analysis (BFA) functionality (indicating Missing, Inadequate, Failed, Unreliable or Effective barrier performance during incidents or unplanned demands) from IncidentXP.

Summaries can be posted physically e.g. Control Rooms, Canteens, Workshops or Meeting Rooms in A4 (or larger) format and/or online e.g. Intranet, SharePoint, Newsletters.

Online Games

To allow remote collaboration a digital desktop version is available which allows multiple players to share their knowledge e.g. each person is dealt a playing card and they have to talk about the LoC event on it, for example as a Safety Moment to start an online meeting or as an informal discussion about “who knows what”.

Customization

This simple approach to ‘microlearning’ can be quickly developed and deployed in a number of ways with different focus areas or topics, including (but not limited to):

  • Potential Ignition Sources
  • Process Safety Management
  • Human Factors
  • Cyber Security

Cards, summaries & online games can be created in different languages, styles and with corporate branding.

Learn how this game works! Join the demo

An online demonstration of the concept is scheduled for Thu 28th January with AM & PM sessions to suit your time zone.
Visit www.ProcessSafetyCards.com/events for information & registration.

Contact

If you would like to know more about the cards, bowties or online games and how to put Process Safety (Asset Integrity) knowledge literally into the hands of those who may contribute to and/or be impacted by Loss of Containment (LoC) events, feel free to contact us. We’d be happy to setup a demo.

E: [email protected]
W: www.ProcessSafetyCards.com

© CGE Risk. 2021 – The copyright of the content of this guest blog belongs to Process Safety Integrity who has authorized CGE Risk Management Solutions B.V. to provide this content on its website.

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