LAUSR

Abstract Changes are a daily reality in the process industry and potential implications on major accident hazards must be properly managed. Management of change is a part of safety management, however, changes are often complex and usually involve both technical and organizational aspects. We present a new integrated method (to make a distinction, we name it a “Safety change management”) to evaluate and manage change proposals, considering both technical and organizational dimensions in an integrated way. This method includes the consideration of applicable management levels within the organization and follows a business process redesign model. A change is evaluated for its impacts and interactions between various management levels (using a set of checklists) and accordingly, planning actions are prepared for validation and monitoring. The method was subject to testing and validation by two industrial organizations via ex-post re-assessments of three recent changes. The proposed method was found detailed, effective, useful and transparent by the plant managers involved.