Competency Requirements in Process Safety

When selecting individuals to perform process safety management tasks one will want to make sure that those individuals are competent to perform the relevant tasks. The process industry functional safety standard IEC 61511, specifically addresses this requirement in clause 5.2.2.2 by stating that “Persons, departments or organizations involved in SIS safety life-cycle activities shall be competent to carry out the activities for which they are accountable”. The standard requires that competency requirements are documented as part of the overall functional safety management plan. But how does one ensure competency of individuals? This paper will review the requirements in the IEC 61511 standard, compare them to the Body of Knowledge as prepared by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and subsequently review personnel certification programs available in the process industry. The paper concludes how these certification programs can be used to assess an individual’s competency.