Auditing Process Safety Management

Process Safety Management audits are essential to establish the PSM systems, measure the compliance against the standards, maintain and continuously improve the process safety performance. Audits can be of three types, First party, Second Party and Third party and each have their own structure, purpose, strengths and pitfalls. It is essential for leaders to become involved in audit program design, learn the standards that are the basis of audits and personally participate in PSM audits. A robust audit program brings subject-matter experts, to ask tough questions to determine reality and suggest appropriate actions. When different audit approaches are used and resulting audit recommendations are implemented, companies are rewarded with sustainable improvement in the prevention of process safety incidents.