3204 Guidelines for the management of safety critical elements

Overview:

The purpose of this technical publication is to provide industry guidance for the management of safety critical elements (SCEs) throughout the life cycle of a facility from conceptual design, through the operate phase, to changes such as life extension and decommissioning. An SCE is any part of a facility, plant, or computer program, the failure of which could cause, or contribute substantially to, a major accident hazard (MAH); or the purpose of which is to prevent or limit the effect of an MAH.

This 3rd edition has updated the 2nd edition so as to:

• Capture experience in SCE management.
• Make it applicable to a wider range of facilities.
• Recognise the range of maturity of international legislation and competent authority requirements for SCE management, which include some that mandate verification through to those with little specific requirement for MAH management.

In doing so, it provides:

• new guidance on SCE development and management in project phases, from initial SCE suitability through to ongoing SCE suitability;
• new guidance on the role of human and organisational factors in SCE management;
• new guidance on the role of change, which is a challenge to SCE management;
• additional guidance on developing performance standards (PSs);
• new guidance on using safety integrity level (SIL) determination to set and measure performance targets in PSs;
• additional guidance on assurance aspects of SCE management, to rectify an imbalance with the amount of guidance on verification in the 2nd edition;
• new guidance on implementation of SCE integrity assurance, such as its interface with maintenance management;
• new guidance on SCE management at system, equipment and component levels;
• new guidance on determining SCE criticality;
• new guidance on SCE performance, review and continual improvement, and
• new guidance on managing SCE ageing, obsolescence and life extension.

In addition, the 3rd edition provides practical examples to support the guidance. It therefore provides a robust and updated 'industry' benchmark of good practice in managing SCEs for organisations operating in the high hazards industrial sectors. Adopting its guidance should enable industry operating companies to ensure initial and ongoing suitability of SCEs, and so contribute to improving their process safety management (PSM) capability.

This technical publication is intended for use by process safety specialists, technical safety engineers, designers and asset management specialists working in engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor companies, operating companies (or duty holders under legislation or regulations), verification bodies and competent authorities. It should be of particular use to those involved with SCE assurance and verification, including those organisations that provide asset management (inspection, maintenance, testing and repair) and verification services to operating companies. The intended applications are process industry sector facilities where there are MAHs; these may be new or existing facilities.

EI and UKOOA members are entitled to 50% discount on this publication.