Page 6 - Effectively using metrics

History

Process safety metrics are codified in practice and well-described in joint industry
documents. The American Petroleum Institute (API) Recommended Practice (RP) 754, Process
Safety Performance Indicators for the Refining and Petrochemical Industries, First edition, was
issued in 2010 and focused on the refining and chemical industries. The International
Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) report 456 Process Safety - Recommended Practice
on Key Performance Indicators, first edition, was issued in 2011 with an upstream focus. In an
exceptional example of “responsible collaboration” (AIChE, 2013), the committees authoring
these documents have worked to maintain alignment of these two practices enabling a
common process safety metrics vocabulary across industries world-wide and the ability to
benchmark performance across the industry.

This consistency has supported many companies reporting process safety metrics in their
environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reports (SASB, 2022) as well as to governmental
agencies and joint industry organizations.

The current versions of the key joint industry
documents on process safety metrics are:

 API RP 754 Process Safety Performance
Indicators for the Refining and
rd
Petrochemical Industries 3 Edition (API,
2021), and
 IOGP Report 456 Process Safety -
Recommended Practice on Key Performance
Indicators V2 (IOGP, 2018).

Example corporate ESG report (BP, 2021)

The following reference documents from CCPS and the Institute of Chemical Engineers
(IChemE) Process Safety Center provide comprehensive coverage of process safety metrics
terminology, definitions, and classification. This monograph will not repeat this information
but instead refers the reader to these documents for this foundational information.

 CCPS Process Safety Leading and Lagging Metrics…You Don’t Improve What You Don’t
Measure (CCPS, 2011)
 CCPS Process Safety Leading Indicators Industry Survey (CCPS, 2013)
 CCPS Process Safety Metrics Guide for Selecting Leading Indicators Industry Survey
(CCPS, 2018)
 CCPS Process Safety Metrics Guide for Leading and Lagging Indicators (CCPS, 2022)
 IChemE Guidance Lead Process Safety Metrics – selecting, tracking and learning
(IChemE Safety Centre, 2015)

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Effectively Using Metrics to Improve Process Safety Performance
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