How many times have you heard, or maybe you were the one saying it, that “our initial start-up is the same as normal start-up and that is why we do not have initial start-up procedures”? If I had a $20 bill each time we heard this I would be retired!!!! Recently I was talking process safety with a client who just recently experienced a start-up problem with a new piece of equipment. Of course, this piece of equipment was covered by PSM/RMP and although the incident did NOT involve any release of the HHC/EHS or injury, it did make for a very long day AND night for this engineer. As he was telling me about what happened and how I could not help but run through the process safety failures that allowed this event to occur. But the main item that was missing from the event was an “Initial Start-Up” procedure and of course no training on any initial start-up for this piece of equipment.