Insight
Improving Management of Change Systems with Hazard Recognition
ABS Group Safety, Risk and Compliance Services
Failure to recognize change is typically the primary reason a company's management of change (MOC) system fails. An MOC system can be improved by inverting the MOC paradigm – shift the focus to improving hazard recognition rather than change recognition.
Efforts to improve recognition of change have typically focused on clarifying technical definitions and training workers so they understand those definitions. This complementary approach trains workers to recognize new hazards as a key indicator that an MOC review is warranted.
As relevant today as when first published in the April 2015 issue of Chemical Engineering Progress magazine, and given recently proposed revisions to Process Safety Management regulations, the article "Recognize Hazards to Recognize Change" by ABS Group, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and Valero Energy Corp. discusses the challenge of managing change in chemical process industries and proposes a solution for improving MOC systems through proactive hazard recognition.