China 
Africa 
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Barriers against loss
Published in Urban Kjellén, Eirik Albrechtsen, Prevention of Accidents and Unwanted Occurrences, 2017
Urban Kjellén, Eirik Albrechtsen
The permit-to-work system is an important operational safety measure in industries with severe hazards (HSE 2005; Norwegian Oil and Gas Association 2015). It aims at ensuring that work is planned and carried out under adequate safety precautions in cases where the exposed persons do not control the relevant energies themselves. The permit-to-work system is not a barrier in itself but is a system to ensure that the required barriers against hazardous energies have been instituted and are efficient to ensure safe work execution before work can start. Usually, it is established through administrative procedure, checklists and forms, training of personnel, and auditing to ensure compliance. Examples of hazardous energies often requiring a permit-to-work system are high voltages, liquids under pressure, flammable and other hazardous substances, rotating machinery, and oxygen-depleted or toxic atmosphere (tanks).
Quality Management
Published in H. Selcuk Agca, Giancarlo Cotone, Introduction to Process Plant Projects, 2018
H. Selcuk Agca, Giancarlo Cotone
Regarding such site work, the following particular methods and tools are used in accordance with the QMS: Constructability reviews made during home office services represents one of the important design verification activities for the quality as well as the viability and safety of construction.Work permit application procedure (often called as Permit to Work, PTW) and the information to be submitted for the permit request, like method statements, represent enforcements for good work planning, and verification to bring in quality as well as safety of the work to be done.NDT (non-destructive testing) activities are performed in accordance with the contract requirements, codes, engineering standards, and good engineering/construction practices which are outlined in and often referred to as inspection and test plan, ITP. Results of these inspections and tests (and the subsequent corrective actions for failed tests) stand out as an evidence for the quality of the construction.Mechanical completion is an important milestone in the project as marking the time of transition from construction to commissioning. It represents the entire plant (or the declared portion of it) is mechanically complete in accordance with the approved procedure and is ready for commissioning and startup, in conformity with the quality and safety requirements of the contract.
Health and safety in the engineering environment
Published in Mike Tooley, Engineering Technologies Level 3, 2017
A permit to work is a formal, written, safe system of work to control potentially hazardous activities. The permit details the work to be done and the precautions to be taken (for instance, they might involve closing down part of a process or disconnecting supplies, or they might detail rescue arrangements for certain types of work). Permits should be issued, checked and signed off as being completed by a competent employee (often a site manager) who is not directly involved in carrying out the work.
Prioritizing the indicators influencing permit to work system efficiency based on an analytic network process
Published in International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, 2022
Soheil Abbasi, Neda Gilani, Mostafa Javanmardi, Seyed Shamseddin Alizadeh, Saeid Jalilpour, Milad Safari
In recent years, many precautions have been taken to protect workers against hazards and to prevent accidents in the workplace; still, some major incidents occur. Ambiguous work plans give rise to misunderstandings between workers, and this situation may lead to an incident. One of the administrative systems that ensures safe work instructions to prevent accidents is the permit to work (PTW) [1]. A PTW system is a formal administrative and document-based procedure designed to control non-routine and potentially hazardous works that are performed rarely and require particular activities to accomplish safely [2,3]. Non-routine work refers to unique tasks that are hazardous in nature and are rarely performed (such as working with flammable materials, working in confined spaces, electrical work, excavation, radiation work, etc.). As the worker is not familiar with this type of work, this may lead to specific hazards that come from unfamiliarity. Therefore, the work requires special equipment and training to perform safely [4]. The PTW system protects employees, equipment and the environment against incidents through creation of formal written instruction; in addition, information is documented so that site administrators can communicate with employees about work plans [1]. Also, this system has several other functions, such as auditing non-routine work processes, providing protection methods and warning workers of dangerous situations [1,5,6]. It is worth noting that although this system is one of the elements of workplace safety, it does not prevent injuries and incidents by itself, but is only considered as a further precaution and its role is to verify that the necessary safeguards have been applied. However, this system is susceptible to failure and can even lead to an accident [7,8]. This problem causes concern, for there were major incidents that resulted from a failure in this system, e.g., one of the immediate causes of the explosion on the Piper Alpha oil platform in the North Sea, which led to 167 fatalities, was failure in the PTW system [9–11]. Also, in 1989, a huge blast resulted in a significant fire that occurred at the Phillips Chemical Company at Pasadena, TX, USA, and 23 operators were killed and more than 130 others injured [12]. According to the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) [13], in the incident classification, safety permit violation falls into a near-miss and incident category.