This is part 4 of our five-part ‘Risk to Resilience’ blog series that explores key practices in process safety management (PSM), and how organizations can address key challenges, improve PSM performance, and build safer working environments.
Many organizations still evaluate their safety performance primarily through lagging indicators, such as recordable injuries, illnesses, and lost-time incidents.
While these remain important for compliance and reporting, best-in-class firms complement them with leading indicators that track proactive safety efforts, like reported near misses and observations, completed audits and inspections, and training participation.
Lagging indicators tell you what has already happened. But leading indicators reveal how effectively your organization is being proactive, preventive, and predictive about safety. They offer early warning signs of potential problems.
The same principle applies to process safety. Relying solely on the number of process safety incidents to evaluate the performance of a process safety management (PSM) program is not enough.
Organizations should also monitor leading indicators to understand and improve the effectiveness of a PSM program.
Here are five important PSM leading indicators to track.
PHAs completed or updated on time
A Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) is a structured and systematic exercise that identifies hazards within a plant or facility, assesses the associated risks, and determines the required safeguards. PHAs help to analyze causes and consequences of potential process safety incidents.
After PHAs are initially conducted, they are revisited every five years, or sooner if a significant change or incident takes place. It’s essential PHAs are completed or updated on time to avoid operational delays and ensure all hazards and risks remain clearly understood.
Also, leading organizations recognize that barriers and controls can degrade over time, causing risk levels to change. That’s why they don’t let their PHAs sit untouched for years. Instead, they digitalize and maintain their PHAs dynamically, allowing them to be updated easily as conditions, equipment, or processes change. This proactive approach keeps risk visibility current and strengthens process safety performance.
MoC requests closed on time
Every change, whether in people, processes, equipment, materials, contractors, or even plant layout, has the potential to introduce new hazards or increase the likelihood of a risk materializing into an incident.
A robust Management of Change (MoC) process is essential. An effective MoC system uses structured workflows that require impact assessments, reviews, and authorizations before any modification is implemented.
In the context of process safety management, MoC ensures all proposed changes are properly analyzed, risks are identified and assessed, and appropriate safeguards are put in place.
MoC requests must be closed in a timely manner. This helps prevent operational delays and ensures all risks associated with a change are understood, documented, and controlled. In addition, all affected workers, including operators, maintenance teams, and contractors, must be informed of the change and provided with the necessary training, as part of the MoC process.
Preventive maintenance completed on time
Preventive maintenance involves performing regular, scheduled maintenance on equipment and machinery to ensure they continue operating as intended. These activities also help detect potential issues early, before they develop into unexpected failures or incidents.
Timely completion of preventive maintenance tasks is a strong indicator of PSM performance. It shows an organization is taking a proactive approach to preventing equipment failure and maintaining asset health, rather than reacting to breakdowns. Consistent preventive maintenance also reduces unplanned downtime, avoids costly repairs, extends asset life, and enhances operational efficiency.
In the context of process safety management, and under OSHA’s PSM standard, effective preventive maintenance programs directly support mechanical integrity requirements, a key element of process safety.
Equipment inspections completed on time
Equipment inspections play a critical role in verifying the integrity and reliability of assets such as storage tanks, pressure vessels, piping systems, pressure safety valves, pressure relief valves, pumps, and electrical systems. Inspections help to detect early signs of degradation, corrosion, or other conditions that could compromise process safety.
Conducting inspections on schedule is a strong indicator of proactive process safety management. It reflects organizational efficiency and allows to identify and address issues early, before they lead to unplanned failures, operational disruptions, or incidents.
Consistent and timely equipment inspections and preventive maintenance together form the foundation of a robust mechanical integrity program that keeps facilities safe, reliable, and compliant.
Action plans closed on time
Action plans turn insights into action. They represent the final, and often most critical, step in the process. When PHAs or MoCs identify safeguards to put in place, or when inspections and maintenance uncover issues that must be addressed, action plans ensure preventive or corrective measures are implemented, rather than left as unaddressed recommendations.
Timely closure of action plans is a key leading indicator of PSM performance. Hazards and risks don’t wait while organizations deliberate, so completing actions on schedule is essential. This keeps workers safe and critical barriers and controls healthy, but also minimizes operational disruptions and downtime.
Effective action plan management transforms findings into real risk reduction, which is important for proactive process safety.
There are other valuable PSM leading indicators beyond the five described here. Tracking them all at once can seem daunting, but the key is to start with a few that are the most relevant to your operations and build from there.
This is the fourth post of our five-part ‘Risk to Resilience’ blog series on PSM. Read the other three posts:
- 5 Biggest challenges in executing PSM strategies
- Key foundations of Process Safety Management
- 5 Benefits of digitizing your process safety management
Stay tuned for the fifth and final post where we will look at process hazard analysis (PHA) more closely and offer a glimpse into the future of PSM.
Wolters Kluwer Enablon Process Safety Management software and safety management tools let you implement a digitized PSM framework that identifies, evaluates and controls hazards related to processes using hazardous chemicals.
