A Practical Approach to Preventing Systematic Error in the Maintenance of Instrumented Safeguards

PresentationInstrumentation and electrical (I&E) maintenance is typically managed using site-wide policies, practices, and procedures. Since I&E equipment is part of the control system and nearly every other layer of protection, the cumulative impact of poor I&E performance can be a significant contributor to major events. Systemic problems in managing I&E equipment reliability lowers process safety performance across a site. Practical guidance is needed on how to assess the vulnerability of existing sites to instrumented safeguard failure due to maintenance deficits. This paper leverages Reason’s organizational accident model as a framework to discuss site-specific factors that impact a site’s susceptibility to maintenance error. A table of more than 60 human factors covering I&E maintenance activities was developed and organized by 4 elements of causality: organizational processes, workplace practices, personnel traits, and enabling conditions. The human factors table can be used to rate an industrial site on a negative-to-positive scale, highlighting those areas where systemic changes would likely improve maintenance performance and instrument reliability