Management of Change: Quality Implementation and Performance

It is often said that the only thing which is permanent in this world is change. In the process industry, as elsewhere, change is a main lever for keeping up to date and producing more efficiently to remain competitive. Yet the incident investigations reports such as that published by the US Chemical Safety Board indicate ineffective Management of Change (MOC) is one of the major contributing factors in many of catastrophic incidents in the process industry.

In support of quality MOC implementation and maintaining its performance within process industry, this paper addresses potential MOC enhancement initiatives for deploying the MOC thru a quality process model that considers assigning the MOC process accountability, training MOC process owner, setting out MOC guideline that covers all MOC related measures, implementing staff comprehensive training program, developing Key Performance Indicator (KPI) and linking the MOC to a Team Safety Recognition Program.

Moreover the paper takes into account exposing the main aspects of the MOC program; i.e. the MOC definition and types, the common shortfalls in MOC in the process industry and the key success factors for successful MOC program.

In effect this contribution seeks overcoming the resisting forces to MOC as a new concept in the process industry all through disseminating quality MOC implementation scope. Given that the MOC is relatively new to the process industry, its outset back to 1992, when formed as a new law by the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration, for managing change; hence it could remain short-lived unless there are fundamental changes in values, ways of thinking and approaches.