Marathon initiated a plan in 2007 to improve process safety management (PSM) programs and performance. Gordon Herron, refining process safety management coordinator, was involved in aligning PSM programs from individual operating organizations into a comprehensive corporate plan.

 

“The PSM improvement plan is a process, not a one time program,” Herron explained. “One of our first steps was to form a PSM Steering Committee of 11 senior executives to formalize oversight and ownership of process safety.

 

“We established teams focusing on the 14 specific PSM elements. The teams developed a new enterprise-wide Marathon PSM Standard. They drew from OSHA standards and guidance, internal audit results, recent incident investigation results and external lessons learned. They also reviewed the results of OSHA's National Emphasis Program audit of the Canton, Ohio, refinery. My role was to coordinate the teams and pull together the standard based on their input.

 

“Marathon operating units are rolling out the new standard to employees and affected contractors during 2008. At sites where PSM is not a regulatory requirement, the standard may serve as a template for implementation.

 

“Training is a major aspect of the PSM improvement plan. In 2007, all employees at OSHA-regulated sites, HES staff, and certain supervisors and managers completed a computer-based process safety training course. PSM awareness training will be mandatory for all new employees at regulated sites, in HES positions and for high-level management going forward.

 

“The element teams also finalized metrics for incidents, near misses and leading
indicators to track and improve PSM performance. We started using the new
metrics in 2008 to gauge our progress.

 

“Thanks to the intense focus on process safety in 2007, Marathon now has
enhanced oversight and ownership, a new standard, and training and metrics
to continually improve our PSM performance.”