Words still mean something! There is a reason why OSHA (and EPA) use the word “Management” in the titles of their process safety standards. Sorry to state the obvious, but the standards are NOT called “process safety managER” for a really good reason. I have been serious about process safety since 1993 and the one thing I have learned…
there is no single human walking among us that has all the necessary skills to manage all facets of process safety!
Process safety is DRIVEN BY and MANAGED by senior management at any facility; safety and process safety professionals merely provide one set of skills necessary within a process safety management system. I have had the pleasure to work with so many world-class engineers over my career and they have spent tons of time with me one-on-one to teach me about pressure vessels, piping, pressure relief devices, safety instrumented systems, etc.; however, I in return taught them about LOTO, Heichary of Controls, PRCS, LB/PO, Respirators, Emergency Planning and Response, HAZMATs, Investigations, Auditing, etc. There is no way, WE could have had the success we all shared without each one of us bringing our skills to the MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. But some safety professionals/process engineers have not had the pleasure of working for a Claude Bloom, Dale Fannin, Dan Grucza, or a Jim Krumholtz throughout their careers. You see, these men GOT IT… I, their crazy and energetic safety professional, was a mere small piece to the process safety puzzle they were responsible for. They knew, without a doubt, they were RESPONSIBLE for all that went on inside their facility and they embraced that challenge. They hired people with specific skills sets and personalities that they knew would make a world-class team, such that they could rely on the MANAGEMENT SYSTEM to achieve the results they desired. Not any one (1) person could pull it off, but the right TEAM certainly could. This management principle seems to have gotten lost over the years as I see a lot of valiant attempts at process safety excellence by so many safety professionals trying to do the right thing and yet they are doomed to failure on, yes, a CATASTROPHIC LEVEL.
I am not quite sure where businesses got off track, but the things I see happening in our profession, especially in the process safety arena, scare me and sadden me. I see so many safety professionals “burned out” and just have no fight left in them and their “safety mission” has turned into “a job” to support their family. And with that, comes management enjoying their blissfully haphazard approach to traditional occupational safety and health and process safety. And when something goes horribly wrong, there is genuine shock amongst them as they made no effort to manage, much less, gauge their actual performance within the management system we call PSM and RMP.
One of my engineering mentors always reminded me that our HHC/EHS’s worked 24/7/365 to escape their primary containment. They were constantly pushing against the containment regardless of what we did… THEY WANT TO SET THEMSELVES FREE! We had ONE (1) job to do and that was to KEEP them contained; its actually quite simple, but there are many layers to this effort and that is why it takes a team of well trained, highly ethical, and well-intentioned professionals. Those leaders I mentioned above all had a similar approach to managing their team… just keep them fed well and energized about their role AND LET THEM DO THE JOB they were hired to do. All the plant manager did was referee the debates and balance the risks.
I was lucky, very lucky and to this day I am not sure how got so lucky to work for such wonderful companies, engineers, and plant managers. I can probably count the number of times I did not get the $ or resources necessary to achieve the goals that were set for me by those men mentioned above. Only twice in my career, and each time it was mere months, did I have to slow down or shift gears due to a temporary plant manager who just did not “get it”; but the business saw this and I said their obstruction was temporary and I received tremendous support from my corporate leaders during these times.
Here we are today… with an EHS Manager, single person, who is responsible for:
- Occupational Safety
- Health/IH
- Process Safety (PSM/RMP)
- Security (CFATS)
- Emergency Response
- Air & Water Permits
- Solid & HAZ Waste
And this list could go on and on!
How does a business become so illiterate on EHS that they believe they can be successful in any facet of EHS with a single person, not only responsible for managing but in many cases, they also have to actually do those tasks personally. Something has to give and unfortunately, all of those tasks are critical to EHS and most often each one requires some very specific skills to be sucessful.