Nearly 82 per cent of respondents defined the human factor as "very important" for process safety management (PSM) in a recent survey conducted by the organisers of an upcoming conference on process safety in Abu Dhabi.

Organised by the International Quality and Productivity Centre, the third annual Process Safety Management Summit will be held from September 18 to 21.

ENOC's Group EHSQ compliance director Waddah S Ghanem and Carlos V Tan, Group EHS advisor will be conducting a panel discussion on how to address the human factor in process safety management at the summit.

Carlos V Tan will also be giving a presentation on how to drive improvement through monitoring, metrics and indicators, defining how to utilise inspection to monitor PSM and implement tracking and data collation systems for effective analysis.

Building PSM into operations and process design has become a key focus in the Middle East, with 86.4 per cent of respondents already at the implementation phase of PSM.

Major safety accidents in recent years have highlighted the high price of safety failure and the need for process to be put in place to avoid future disasters. Incidents like Macondo do not occur as a result of singular component failure, but from a series of process and human errors, a statement said.

BP issued a report last year which addressed the multiple process flaws that contributed to the cause of the accident; "a complex and interlinked series of mechanical failures, human judgments, engineering design, operational implementation and team interfaces."

Whilst the National Oil Spill Commission concluded, "Most of the mistakes and oversights at Macondo can be traced back to a single overarching failure-a failure of management."

Although PSM is an effective tool for limiting multiple mechanical or human mistakes, the process needs to be implemented throughout various departments within the organisation and essentially a process safety culture needs to be created for successful execution. – TradeArabia News Service