In our profession, we live and sadly die by rules. Whether they are government regulations or company rules, unfortunately, our profession and our approach to safety were based on compliance with these rules. Luckily, by the time I came around in the early 1990s, we saw a serious shift in the chemical process industry with OSHA’s first “performance-oriented standard,” Process Safety Management (1910.119). Yes, PSM and RMP are government regulations. Still, they are merely frameworks of a 14-Element management system, and we get to pick and choose the RAGAGEPs we adopt to design, construct, operate and maintain our process(s). In this episode from Dr. Conklin, he makes his point regarding “compliance with rules.” Compliance is a foundation to build upon – but compliance is NOT world-class safety. The great ones have figured this out and Dr. Conklin makes so much sense with this podcast and “rule breakers”.
