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"Process safety management training."

October 16, 2009 by Mike Strawbridge

We had a unique problem with Process Safety management training for our solvent recovery system at the Westvaco plant where I worked.

We had only one operator.

He was also the engineer in charge of developing all the Process Safety Management training documentation.  So who was to train him?

He was the only one who really knew the system and therefore he was the one who prepared the documentation.  We first thought that I could train him, but that seemed silly since I would be training from the documents he prepared.

There were maintenance workers that needed to be trained in process safety management and our operator/engineer did the training for them.  So we finally settled in letting him train himself.

We established all the correct documents to record the training and I audited the system occasionally as well as our other corporate staff to make sure he trained himself properly.

Having all the process safety information included in his operating instructions helped greatly in this task of process safety management training.  Because, if he changed any of the operating procedures, he also had to update the process safety information and through the management of change documentation, his training of himself was automatically recorded as well.

Sometimes complying with OSHA regulations can be challenging even to those who have the intent of running a safe operation.  But we always enjoyed finding creative solutions to things like process safety management training.

Mike Strawbridge October 16, 2009