Improvement in safety

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Improvement in safety: 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 every individual and at every stage. By making improvements, companies 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 that new hazards may 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 and reducing costs, paying insufficient attention to safety. By improving one aspect, they create another potential safety hazard. After a company carried out technical upgrades to its process equipment, an accident almost 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 equipment’s accessories 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 risk of the working fluid overflowing from the funnel during waste discharge; therefore, valves have been designed to control flow under each funnel. 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 flow rate was too high, preventing the material from reaching the underground tank through the removal pipelines in a timely manner; 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. To save time and effort, we modified the method of collecting the working fluid, but the lack of valves led to leakage. Even with the addition of valves, if the operating procedures and regulations are not updated in a timely manner, overflow may still occur when V1302 discharges waste along with other discharge points. Due to excessive xylene emissions in the hydrogenation exhaust gas, we installed activated carbon adsorption tanks on the hydrogenation exhaust pipes. This improvement is affected by problems in the design, installation, and operation phases; there is a change in the connection point of the nitrogen purge pipeline during the design stage ； The pipe fittings, flanges, valves, etc. used during installation do not meet the standards ； There are issues such as whether the procedures for daily operations and regeneration are feasible during use. Therefore, solving one problem leads to multiple others; in work, the issues underlying a problem are often overlooked, resulting in potential hazards and even safety accidents. From minor adjustments and temporary changes from an early age to major technical upgrades, safety must be ensured as a prerequisite for any improvement; from design to construction, all aspects must meet safety requirements and standards. Enterprises need to standardize and improve their procedures, conducting safety assessments at every stage including design, installation, acceptance, and use, to ensure safety control 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. Going forward, the company needs to incorporate improvement efforts into change management to ensure safe improvements.