WORKPLACE SAFETY
Summers adds that this is not just about safety, it is about protecting the business itself. “When you’re building bigger, you are also producing more,” notes Summers. “If there’s a disruption, the financial impact can escalate quickly: from lost production to missed delivery commitments. That’s why early assessments matter so much.”
Roche points to three factors that strengthen an assessment team:
Human performance: looking beyond hardware and logic to policies, procedures, and training and focusing on the people who will use and maintain the systems.
Seniority and experience: assessors who have seen enough projects, and enough problems, to recognise subtle inconsistencies that can cause trouble years later.
Standards competence: deep familiarity with the current SIS standard and related guidance, plus awareness of revisions on the horizon.
STAGE 2: PROVING THE DESIGN WILL DELIVER With the hazard basis established in Stage 1, Stage 2 shifted focus to determining whether the detailed design could deliver the required level of safety performance. This phase is where SIL verification,
voting architectures, diagnostics, and proof-test intervals are scrutinised against the hazard analysis. It is also where human factors and long-term maintainability begin to shape the design. Stage 2 also laid the groundwork for safe, consistent plant operations once the facility is turned over. Procedures, proof-test methods, and training materials had to be aligned with the design so that operations and maintenance teams inherit a system they can sustain for decades. “We believe that knowledge sharing is the most powerful safety tool,” Bergen says. “If someone doesn’t understand how a system works, or why it works a certain way, they’re more likely to make mistakes. Our goal is to make it easier to succeed and harder to fail.”
STAGE 3: PROVE IT IN THE FIELD
Construction is now well underway. As sections of the plant are completed and turned over, Stage 3 will provide the ultimate confirmation: ensuring that what’s been installed matches the design and performs as intended.
Summers notes that Stage 3 also aligns closely with regulatory requirements under OSHA’s Process Safety Management (PSM) and the EPA’s Risk Management Plan (RMP).
“It’s the final check to ensure everything is installed, tested, and ready before a plant can safely start up,” she says. “It includes inspecting hardware, reviewing test results, and confirming that operations and maintenance procedures, along with training, align with the design.” When functional safety systems work, potential issues are managed seamlessly, and operations continue without disruption.
For Bergen and the team at the Golden Triangle Polymers Project, they have their own way of measuring success. “While this facility is rightfully recognised for its size, we want it to be known for its safety,” Bergen concludes. “High production capacity and high safety standards are not mutually exclusive; they go hand in hand. Safety is embedded in our design philosophy, our work processes and our culture. It’s not something we add on; it’s something we build in from the start.”
Chevron Phillips Chemical
www.cpchem.com
INDUSTRIAL COMPLIANCE |WINTER/SPRING 2026 21
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