April 14, 2014- For those of you who wish to know and
understand more about HAZOP (Hazard and Operability Study)
and associated stuff, there are basically three ways to do it. Here is a list of them with their associated advantages and disadvantages:
a)
Surf the web- just like you likely found this page while searching for
terms like HAZOP or HAZOP Study free pdf.There will be hundreds or even
thousands of articles that range from the fairly easy to understand to
the completely complex ones which may leave you gasping for breath (or
bored enough to go to sleep). Also the variety and scope will be mind
boggling. You will learn all the jargon though...to impress your friends
who have no idea about HAZOP studies.
b) Read a book.
There are a few about Risk Assessment and HAZOP. None of them covers
everything though, so you will have to buy at least three of them to
learn anything of value. Of course even if you read them and understand
the concepts, you will have nothing in your hand that proves to the
world that you know your stuff!
c) Download the HAZOP e-learning course from Abhisam, that covers everything about HAZOP
in one, short, easy to understand course. There are several animations
and simulations that explain key concepts and make this difficult to
understand subject very easy to learn. Besides you can take their online
exam and get a Certificate of Competency too, on passing!
Monday, April 14, 2014
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Human Factors in HAZOP & other risk assessment techniques
How important are human factors when carrying out risk assessment studies such as HAZOP, LOPA and other techniques? Very much important it turns out, although until now most practitioners did not include this factor in their risk assessment studies. But of course we know that accidents can and do happen due to human error. Is there a policy guideline for this in place? Yes, it turns out that there is, in fact it was released a long time ago.
The UK Health and Safety Executive reportedly is mulling to include a "human" factor in risk assessment of major hazard facilities (COMAH). They have released a policy roadmap that details this here.
For example if the Risk assessmnet of a major hazard facility shows that it is essential to carry out some maintenance tasks regularly to reduce the risks, then a human factors analysis should be done to find out if
a) whether the task itself could be skipped?
b) whether any alarms can be raised if this is skipped due to error, negligence or simply laziness?
c) whether an incompetent performance of this task could result in an accident?
Very valid questions and a long way to go to analyze all the myriad things that humans can and many times actually do wrong!
So in your next HAZOP review one of the deviations should be "operator did not perform the task at all OR he did not perform the task correctly". This condition has not been included in any HAZOP formats or software to the best of our knowledge but should be and will, in the near future.
If you would like to know more about this aspect, you can check out the Abhisam course here.
The UK Health and Safety Executive reportedly is mulling to include a "human" factor in risk assessment of major hazard facilities (COMAH). They have released a policy roadmap that details this here.
For example if the Risk assessmnet of a major hazard facility shows that it is essential to carry out some maintenance tasks regularly to reduce the risks, then a human factors analysis should be done to find out if
a) whether the task itself could be skipped?
b) whether any alarms can be raised if this is skipped due to error, negligence or simply laziness?
c) whether an incompetent performance of this task could result in an accident?
Very valid questions and a long way to go to analyze all the myriad things that humans can and many times actually do wrong!
So in your next HAZOP review one of the deviations should be "operator did not perform the task at all OR he did not perform the task correctly". This condition has not been included in any HAZOP formats or software to the best of our knowledge but should be and will, in the near future.
If you would like to know more about this aspect, you can check out the Abhisam course here.
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