Managing Management of Change

The Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) has designated MOC as one of the areas where metrics need to be developed. One of the issues that CCPS is concerned about is the quality of the MOCs as much as the quantity of those that have not been completed. One of the reasons is that people tend to concentrate on the mechanics of MOC rather than the content because of limited resources and the need to be in compliance. So how do we ensure quality as well as prompt closure of changes? By recognizing the elements that are crucial to make a good MOC and using a database to accomplish the mechanics, thus freeing personnel to concentrate on the important requirements. It will be proposed that a good MOC requires three main elements to be very well executed: the technical description of the change, the safety analysis (which includes its review) and the Pre-Startup Safety Review. Having achieved quality it is important to manage the process efficiently and this can be done with the help of a database that automatically provides the necessary metrics. The requirements of high-quality MOCs, the necessary workflow to have an efficient process, and the metrics that are necessary to do a good job in managing the MOC process will be discussed.