New Report from Sphera Reveals Adoption of Technology to Prevent Major Accident Hazards and Human Factors Are Top Challenges in Process Safety

Sphera’s 2024 Process Safety Report shows that while senior leadership and compliance are improving process safety, there remains a persistent gap between safety goals and reality

CHICAGO, IL (October 23, 2024) – Despite advances in available technology that bridge the gap between safety intent and achievement, about two-thirds (66%) of companies still cited disparities between process safety goals and reality, which has remained virtually unchanged since the first edition of the Process Safety Report nine years ago. 

“The stakes are higher than ever for process safety improvements,” said Paul Marushka, Sphera’s CEO and president. “Our newest Process Safety Report shows that experienced personnel are exiting the industry, aging facilities are increasing the likelihood of something going wrong — such as incidents with facilities, equipment or people — and visibility into potential hazardous incidents continues to be limited for many organizations that have not adopted proven digital capabilities. On the bright side, we have seen increased interest from senior management who appreciate the connections between improved systems, profitability and competitiveness. The reality is that improving process safety performance helps to keep people, assets and the environment safe while also reducing costs for stakeholders.”  

Sphera®, the leading provider of Enterprise Sustainability Management (ESM) performance and risk management software, data and consulting services, surveyed 300 process safety management (PSM) and operational risk management (ORM) professionals from around the world and in 10 different industries for the 2024 Process Safety Report. The survey explored the state of process safety and operational risk management in some of the most high-hazard industries, from petrochemicals to power utilities.

Senior leadership and compliance are driving forces in process safety

Over time, there has been a material shift in process safety ownership. Compliance obligations and sustainability regulations could be why nearly one-third (32%) of respondents now say senior leadership is driving process safety compared to 29% in 2023. Three-quarters (74%) of respondents agree that regulations have helped improve safety; yet, just over half of respondents (56%) believe that organizations have moved beyond compliance as an obligation. The top drivers for improving safety performance are reducing major accident hazard (MAH) exposure (61%); operational excellence/ process improvement (52%); and regulatory compliance (41%). These top drivers remain the same from last year’s report but the biggest increase from this year is the focus on production uptime (reducing downtime) — now 36%, up from 29% — which is a critical concern for senior leadership.

Process safety improvements still lag behind the technology

Companies have made progress, with respondents noting that digital tools and real-time data are seen as effective with just over half (51%) pointing to the reduced vulnerability to MAHs. Despite these advances, less than one in four organizations (23%) complete all safety-critical maintenance activities on time and on schedule and just one in ten (9%) are confident they are aware of all MAHs. Looking to the future — as plants get older the probability and consequences of incidents become more significant — almost four in ten respondents (39%) are concerned about lack of visibility into operational risk.

Workforce factors highlighted as a top challenge

The survey found that human factors are seen as the top challenge to delivering effective process safety management, with 40% indicating management involvement and 41% indicating competency as top concerns. This is compounded by experienced personnel leaving the workforce with nearly half of respondents (49%) seeing the loss of and lack of experienced workers as the top factor to increase risks.