Improvement in safety

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“The term “Kaizen” was coined by Masaki Imai, the father of continuous improvement in Japan, in his book *Kaizen: The Secret to Japanese Corporate Success*. The literal meaning of Kaizen is to improve (zen) through change (Kai). Kaizen means improvement, continuous improvement by everyone and at every stage. By making improvements, enterprises can reduce production costs, enhance product quality, improve production efficiency, and optimize the working environment, thereby fostering their sustainable development. Change means transformation, and transformation has two outcomes: improvement or deterioration. Improvement is the goal we desire, but statistically speaking, it is also possible for new hazards to arise. Solving one problem by making a change often creates another problem. Especially in terms of safe production, many companies pursue improvements primarily with the aim of saving time and effort as well as reducing costs, giving insufficient attention to safety aspects; by improving one aspect, they create another potential safety hazard. After a company carried out technical upgrades to its process equipment, an accident nearly occurred during the trial operation period. Analysis shows that the main cause of the accident was that during the technical upgrades to the equipment, only technical aspects were considered, with an emphasis on achieving energy savings and reduced consumption, while the relevant requirements regarding the safety performance of the equipment were ignored. As a result, the accessories of the equipment could not withstand corrosion and pressure, leading to medium leakage. To improve work efficiency and reduce the time employees spend going back and forth to the underground tank to pour in the working fluid, the company installed liquid collection funnels at each sampling point and connected pipes to the underground tank. Given that the sampling funnel and the waste discharge pipe are connected, there is a possibility that the working fluid could overflow from the funnel during waste discharge; therefore, valves have been installed under each funnel for control. On October 9, 2015, the funnels connecting the sampling ports of V1103A/B were put into use. During the process of removing material from the hydrogenation clay bed in the middle shift, the excessive flow rate prevented the material from reaching the underground tank through the removal pipelines; as a result, some of the working fluid flowed back to the funnels of V1103A/B and spilled over. The main reason for this was the absence of valves, which led to leakage of the material. Whether it is minor adjustments and improvements from an early stage or large-scale technical upgrades and expansion projects, safety must be ensured as a prerequisite for any improvement; from design to construction, all aspects must meet safety requirements and standards. Enterprises should standardize and improve their review procedures, conducting safety assessments at every stage including design, installation, acceptance, and use, to ensure safety controls throughout the improvement process. Change means transformation, and transformation requires change management. Control the risks associated with changes and prevent safety accidents caused by them. Moving forward, the company needs to incorporate improvement efforts into change management to ensure safe improvements.