What Don't You Know about Your PSM Program?: How the Process Safety Site Assessment Program (PSSAP®) Can Help Sites Find and Address These Blind-Spots.

Often companies struggle to understand what process safety management areas need their focus. What specific topics am I neglecting? Which of my programs or procedures could use some help to be truly effective? How does my holistic program compare with my peers in the industry? The Process Safety Site Assessment Program (PSSAP®) is an industry-created, industry-led program that can help answer these questions.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) kicked-off the PSSAP program in 2012. Since then, API has administered over 130 of these assessments across the globe. These assessments cover the main focus areas of process safety management: Process Safety Leadership, Operating Practices, Mechanical Integrity (focused on fixed equipment), Safe Work Practices, Management of Change (MOC), Process Hazards Analysis (PHA), Facility Siting, Product Storage & Transfer, and Incident Learning. In addition to these traditional areas, the PSSAP program can also assess your Hydrofluoric Acid (HF) Alkylation/API RP-751 processes, as well as the Safeguards a site has in place to address risks, our newest offering.

But how can an assessment help my site? Won't I just receive a report? The PSSAP program is not a normal assessment. While our assessments are based on satisfying industry-created good practice protocols, an operators gets much more from our assessors than a report following their time on-site. API sends a full team of vetted, qualified assessors that are leaders in their field, with the average experience of one of our assessors being 40+ years. Our assessors spend time on site, and in addition to evaluating your programs for your blind spots, they also are constantly sharing the good-practices they have seen across the industry as part of their participation in this program. Not only does a site receive an assessment of their programs, they also can find out what the rest of the industry is doing to address these areas. Not only does a site get this through good-practice sharing from our assessors, but also get to see the benchmarking data from our previous assessments. With over 130 worldwide assessments, a site can statistically gauge how they compare with their peers. Not only can they gauge how they compare, but sites also receive a detailed examination of the specific areas that could use more of their attention.

In addition to the different focus areas and our assessor pool, it is important to note that these assessments are scalable. Are you a small site? Is your operation too small for you to think such an assessment would be worthwhile? API created a shorter program for these sites, enabling them to access our industry-leading expert assessors so that all may benefit from their wealth of knowledge, continuing to drive refining, petrochemical and chemical operators toward our shared goal of zero process safety incidents.

We will explore our newest offerings in this forum, and will also show examples of what a site stands to gain from their participation in this industry-led and driven program.