Tom R. Williams
Senior Risk/Reliability Engineer; ABS Group
Tom Williams is a senior risk/reliability engineer, project manager, course developer, and instructor with ABS Group. For more than 30 years, he has specialized in leading, managing and documenting process hazard analyses (PHAs), layer of protection analyses (LOPAs) and related studies for the oil and gas, petrochemical, specialty chemical, fertilizer, corn milling, pulp and paper, power utility, engine manufacturing and other industries. He has reviewed processes involving ammonia, chlorine, ethylene oxide, epichlorohydrin, formaldehyde, cyclohexane, cyclopentane, isobutane, hydrogen and many other flammable, toxic and/or reactive chemicals as well as combustible dusts and explosives.
Mr. Williams is also the engineer of ABS Group's LEADER™ software, used by thousands of PHA leaders and scribes worldwide. He designs and develops the software, help files and training materials to support the needs of engineers and safety professionals performing PHAs, LOPAs and related studies.
As a PHA leader, he has applied the hazard and operability (HAZOP) and What-if/Checklist analysis methodologies to hundreds of batch and continuous processes, using the LEADER software to produce formal reports that comply with OSHA PSM and EPA RMP requirements and satisfy a variety of corporate standards and risk assessment protocols. Many of these studies included guideword-based hazard analyses of written operating procedures (i.e., procedure HAZOPs). This work led to his co-development of ABS Group's training courses in effective procedure writing, teaching an integrated guideword approach for identifying possible human errors and critical safeguard steps during the procedure writing process.
Mr. Williams joined the Knoxville Office of ABS Group (formerly JBF Associates, Inc.) in 1989 while pursuing his mechanical engineering degree from the University of Tennessee. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).