Abnormal Situation Management Solutions

Understanding Abnormal Situations

Abnormal situations encompass a range of events outside the “normal” plant operating modes, i.e., trips, fires, explosions, toxic releases, human error, or just failing to reach planned targets.

Abnormal Situation Management Process

Abnormal situation management is a comprehensive process for improving performance which addresses the entire plant population. It promotes effective utilization of all available resources—i.e. hardware, software, and people, to achieve safe and efficient operations. Significant cost savings can result by employing the abnormal situation management expertise of UCDS, Inc.

A survey of the US petrochemical industry by the Abnormal Situation Management Consortium® estimated industry losses of around $20 billion per year from abnormal situations, approximately equal to the total annual profits of that industry.

Plant surveys show that incidents are frequent, with typical costs ranging from $100,000 to well over $1 million per year. One plant surveyed had 240 shutdowns per year at a total cost of $8 million. Many of these shutdowns were preventable.

ASMC® found that refineries typically suffer a major incident once every three years, at an average cost of $80 million.

One insurance company’s statistics show that industry claims typically exceed $2.2 billion due to equipment damage. It is likely that actual total losses to the companies are significantly higher than what is claimable.

Furthermore, these studies by the Abnormal Situation Management Consortium® indicate that companies achieving Best Practices in operations can improve productivity by 5-12%. The Abnormal Situation Management Joint Research and Development Consortium®, of which UCDS, Inc. President Ian Nimmo was a founding member, conducts research and shares experiences with factors contributing to the successful reduction of abnormal situations in petrochemical processes, and develops, evaluates, and provides new solutions to reduce risks even further.

User Centered Design Services

How UCDS Can Help

User Centered Design Services offers a full line of consulting services to evaluate your current plant condition, make realistic and achievable recommendations for improvement, and aid you in implementing our recommendations. These include: