In many chemical processes around the world, operators are making their rounds checking on those items that have been deemed “critical to process safety”. These rounds usually include checking pressure, temperature, tell-tale gauges, tank levels, heat tracing, taking samples, etc. But in many instances involving these checklists, one item is painfully obvious after an incident– the operator was never provided with safe upper and lower limits of those items they were checking so that they could IMMEDIATELY recognize a process deviation. We have all seen these checklists… it’s a copy of a copy, of a copy, of a copy, and about ¼ of the items are scratched out as they no longer apply. The date on the bottom right of the checklist is 15 years ago (meaning the last official update was 15 years ago!). But each shift, like clockwork, an operator heads out the door, grabs the clipboard with the checklist, and like he/she has done hundreds of times, if not thousands of times, makes their rounds filling in the blanks on the items we have deemed critical to our process safety. Sound familiar? Here are some suggestions to move forward with your “rounds checklist.”
Using a “rounds checklist” is a GREAT place to begin an analysis of the process’s consequences of deviation, as well as a means to develop steps to correct the deviation and avoid the consequences. In this article, I hope to show how this simple checklist can be used as a necessary building block to take our process safety efforts to the next level.
First let’s look at the checklist itself.