Safety management on a refinery maintenance turnaround

Programmed maintenance is an essential part of safety management in high risk industries such as oil refineries and their life cycle. Maintenance turnaround tasks are diverse and constitute an exceptional universe of risks. In this article we intend to discuss if during maintenance turnarounds there is an increase of undesired events and human factor role. Maintenance activities usually represent an increase in accidents and incidents frequency. Accidents can have origin in a series of causes amongst human factor, being human error the most unpredictable. Considering this, we suggest that effective safety management depends on a comprehensive risk assessment that should integrate an assessment of workers perceived risk. When integrated in a human risk factor management program, it could allow determining measures specifically focused on workers, enhancing their risk perception, hence safe behaviour and aid on diminishing the elevated accident frequency preceded by human failure during maintenance turnarounds.