The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) mandates Process Safety Management (PSM) for industries involved with highly hazardous chemicals. For example, food processors often have large ammonia refrigeration systems and must comply with OSHA standard 1910.119, or Process Safety Management of Highly Hazardous Chemicals.
For many manufacturers, PSM means reams of paper and heavy, thick books – including numerous forms, operating procedures manuals, permits, process documents, training certificates and more. In a manufacturing environment, relying on paper or even computer disks is often wieldy and inefficient.
However, compliance doesn’t have to be this tedious or time-consuming. By choosing a digital PSM solution – especially one that does not have to be physically installed onsite – manufacturers can realize numerous benefits, including:
- PSM programs and procedures are stored and accessed online, instead of being printed and bound.
- Employee training or equipment maintenance tasks can be instantly viewed and assigned to individuals.
- When corporate safety personnel perform audits of PSM programs, they can access and review the documentation from their own office instead of traveling to the facility.
- Management of Change and other PSM forms can be more accurately managed, reducing the potential for error. With everything stored in one place, there is no need to search through offices, filing cabinets and file folders for paperwork and no worries about accidental destruction.
- Instead of searching through stacks of paper work orders, equipment maintenance history is documented and quickly retrieved with the click of a mouse.
- PSM audits, process hazard analysis studies and mechanical integrity inspection history and tracking are conveniently accessible online.
- Each facility has separate and secure digital storage areas with frequent back-up protection.
- Email reminders and alerts can be generated for PSM-related events, ensuring that corporate management is aware of the tasks that need to be done in a timely manner.
Digital PSM is Internet-based so that manufacturers can access and use the software via a Web browser at any location (rather than licensing the software and running it on their own servers). This provides increased security, storage, flexibility and cost reduction.
If you’re interested in learning more about our custom-designed digital PSM solutions, email me at foodforthought@stellar.net.
