8/16/2019 Operating Procedures for the Process

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OPERATING PROCEDURES FOR THE PROCESS

INDUSTRIES

Most regulations and rules to do with process risk and safety management require that operating

 procedures be written and followed. Regulators understand that procedures describe the manmachineinterface; consequently they recognize that high quality procedures are absolutely

essential for safe operations. In addition, a number of voluntary standards, such as those coveredunder I! "###, require that procedures be clearly defined and written down.

$ypically rules, regulations and standards to do with procedures do not provide detailed guidance

on issues such as writing style, length, content, appearance or level of detail % nor should they.

&very organization and facility is unique; hence there cannot be a single, universal correct way of 

writing procedures. 'actors that affect the design and content of the procedures include the

following(

?? $he hazards associated with the chemicals that are handled at the facility;

?? $he e)perience and knowledge of the work force;

?? $he comple)ity of the technology being used;

?? $he degree to which the processes are automated; and

?? *hether the process is a continuous or batch operation.

'or these reasons it is not possible to have a single +onesizefitsall- design for an operating or 

maintenance manual. ence the material provided here in this ebook does not promote any

specific system or methodology for the writing and use of procedures. Instead only general

 principles are put forward here; these principles can be transformed into guidance and rules that

are relevant to the needs and requirements of specific facilities and pro/ects. o, for e)ample, the

guidance provided here makes a distinction between instructions and information. $he suggestion

 provided in this ebook is that information should be separated from the actual operating

instructions. owever, such a division is not a requirement, it is merely a suggestion. *hat is

important in situations such as this is that managers and technicians go through the thinking

 process as to how procedures and information are to be organized and linked to one another. $hefinal decision is up to them. $his unfettered approach to the writing of procedures is very much in

the spirit of the process safety regulations and other performancebased standards.

aving freedom with regard to the choice of the design and structure of an operating manual does

not mean, however, that the people who write the procedures have a license to write any way they

choose, regardless of what their colleagues in other units are doing. &ach facility needs a

standard, which, once established, must be followed by everyone, for two reasons. 'irst, a

standardized format makes it easier for technicians to transfer from one area of the facility to

another because they will be already familiar with the organization of the procedures. $he second

advantage of standardization, and the one that is actually the more important, is that it makes the

writing process much easier. Instead of having to create instructions from nothing and then write

those instructions on to a blank sheet of paper, the writers of the procedures, at least to a certain

e)tent, merely have to follow a prescribed formula, thus reducing potential problems associatedwith writer-s block. 0$he avoidance of writer-s block is one of the reasons for stressing the

usefulness of having a tandard !perating 1rocedures library, as discussed on page 23. $he use

of such a library can help create a situation where the procedures writers are not doing much

more than 4filling in the blanks5.6