Quantitative assessment of process safety programs

Increasingly it is being recognized that the quality and effectiveness of process safety programs have a direct quantitative bearing on a company's accident performance and show up most directly in equipment failure and incident frequency. A technique is currently under development, being partially funded by the Dutch and UK Governments, to address these factors. This paper reviews the underlying basis of the system, with its qualitative and simple quantitative outputs, describes a typical application and suggests the important areas for future development. It is anticipated that this system in its eventual configuration could prove useful for site management audits and compliance reviews as it is targeted specifically towards the chemical industry and derives its basis from CPI accident statistics and underlying management principles.