Smith & Burgess' Blog

New Decade’s Resolutions?

Posted by Brandon Ring on Jan 13, 2020 4:21:56 PM

"Great teamwork is the only way we create the breakthroughs that define our careers."

As we enter 2020, most of us have already taken a moment to reflect on last year's successes and failures. (At least on a personal level.) A somewhat painful and unavoidable exercise to help guide your decisions in the upcoming year.

However, how many have taken stock of our past decade's personal successes and failures? If you haven't, quickly give it a shot right now.

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Topics: PSM Review, Industry Compliance, Compliance, OSHA, SIL Design, SIS Design, PSM Audit, Regulatory Compliance, Gap Assessment, Relief System Design, Relief Systems Revalidation, Relief Valve Mitigation, Relief Header, Flare Header Analysis, Allowable Backpressure, Spring Loaded Valves, CAPEX, Disposal System Design, Dynamic System Modelling

2019 REMBE Process Safety Days

Posted by Brandon Ring on Sep 16, 2019 9:56:04 AM

We are excited to announce Mr. John Burgess will be presenting "The Unintended Consequences of Relief Device Pipe Modification" at tomorrow's REMBE's Safety Conference.

REMBE® Process Safety Days is a two-day networking event with highly topical presentations, live demonstration and an extraordinary evening event. It is dedicated to engineers, planners, operators, technicians, maintainer, safety inspectors, technical experts and inspection personnel in supervising organisations.

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Topics: PSM Review, PSM Audit, Regulatory Compliance, Gap Assessment, Relief System Design, Relief Systems Revalidation

The Journey to Peak Facility Safety

Posted by Brandon Ring on Feb 24, 2019 10:34:05 PM

Establishing and maintaining an effective safety culture is a symphony of challenges and moving pieces.

Too often, those responsible engineers are stretched thin with competing priorities. Smith & Burgess is here to help. Our culmination of Process Safety knowledge enables us to quickly provide our clients with practical solutions that lead to compliancesignificant cost-savings, and of course, peak facility safety.

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Topics: PSM Review, Industry Compliance, Compliance, OSHA, SIL Design, SIS Design, PSM Audit, Regulatory Compliance, Gap Assessment, Relief System Design, Relief Systems Revalidation, Relief Valve Mitigation, Relief Header, Flare Header Analysis, Allowable Backpressure, Spring Loaded Valves, CAPEX, Disposal System Design, Dynamic System Modelling

Case Study: LOPA Action Item Review

Posted by Dustin Smith, P.E. on Feb 1, 2018 4:58:00 PM

The Opportunity:

A recent Layers of Protection Analysis (LOPA) of a cavern storage facility identified several equipment installations requiring safety system upgrades. While the facility management wanted to follow proper review procedures, these proposed mitigation options seemed excessive. As a result, the site hired Smith & Burgess to review the safety systems upgrades to ensure the installations were needed and met regulatory requirements.

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Topics: Action Item Resolution, Case Study, Refinery, PSM, PSM Review, OSHA, PSM Audit, Layers of Protection Analysis, Mitigation, LOPA

Case Study: PSM / RMP Refinery-Wide Audit

Posted by Dustin Smith, P.E. on Aug 14, 2017 5:05:00 PM

The Opportunity:

A major United State refinery was proactively ensuring compliance for their PSM Program in preparation for OSHA’s NEP Program. The refinery contacted Smith & Burgess to share best practices on performing PSM / Internal Audits and used this opportunity to train their corporate and site staff to perform future PSM audits.

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Topics: Case Study, Refinery, Industry Compliance, Compliance, OSHA, RMP Audit, PSM Audit, Regulatory Compliance, NEP Audit

Case Study: Gas Plant PSM Audit

Posted by Dustin Smith, P.E. on Jun 20, 2017 5:06:00 PM

The Opportunity:

Regulators will often require that a facility review their process safety management systems on a routine basis. These audits can be performed with internal or external resources. A PSM covered gas plant in the U.S. wanted to hire a consultant to perform an audit. Furthermore, the site wanted the results presented in such a way that they could understand and improve upon the shortfalls of their PSM systems. Based on conversations with other gas plants in the region, the site selected Smith & Burgess to perform the audit.

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Topics: Process Safety Management, Case Study, RAGAGEP, PSM, PSM Review, Industry Compliance, Compliance, PSM Audit, Gas Plant, Regulatory Compliance, Gap Assessment, Engineering Standards

Case Study: Action Item Resolution I

Posted by Dustin Smith, P.E. on Feb 1, 2017 5:00:00 PM

The Opportunity:

Over the course of a four year time period, a major United States refinery was inundated with over 1,000 action items and asked Smith & Burgess to provide recommended resolutions.

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Topics: Action Item Resolution, Case Study, Refinery, PSM, PSM Review, PSM Audit, Mitigation

Case Study: Action Item Resolution II

Posted by Dustin Smith, P.E. on Jan 1, 2017 4:59:00 PM

The Opportunity:

The Process Superintendent at a large specialty chemical manufacturing complex had over 600 open action items that were past due and needed direction on how to close them. The action items were assigned to the unit engineers who were unable to dedicate the necessary time.

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Topics: Action Item Resolution, Case Study, Refinery, PSM, PSM Review, PSM Audit, Mitigation

 Safety Knowledge Should be Share...

“It should not be necessary for each generation to rediscover the principles of process safety which the generation before discovered. We must learn from the experience of others rather than learn the hard way. We must pass on to the next generation a record of what we have learned.” - Jesse C. Ducommun, Safety Pioneer
 
As Process Safety engineers and consultants, we believe our unique position creates a responsibility for Smith & Burgess to share our years of accumulated safety knowledge.


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