Safety & Health - Process Safety and Loss Prevention

The PPG global process safety program applies management systems to the identification, understanding, and control of process hazards to prevent process related incidents that could affect our employees or neighbors. PPG develops guidance and provides direction to facilities globally, utilizing risk based management practices.

Members of the PPG Fire Brigade at the Tianjin facility in China practice firefighting skills in a training class.

PPG does this by: 

• Developing appropriate policies, requirements, and technical references to enable effective and sustainable programs
   
• Networking with industry leaders to share best practices and lessons learned
   
• Characterizing process hazards and risks
   
• Providing tools, templates, and resources to facilitate continuous improvement
   
• Conducting and recommending training on process safety concepts, hazard analysis, etc.
   
• Investigating incidents and serious near miss events
   
• Performing process safety management audits
   
• Implementing risk management and accident prevention plans
   
• Maintaining a high level of emergency preparedness

The PPG Loss Prevention program is based on a philosophy that the majority of property losses are preventable. Prevention requires that PPG recognize potential hazards and develop sound loss prevention solutions based on scientific research.

• Developing appropriate policies, requirements, and technical references to enable effective and sustainable programs
   
• Conducting and recommending training on loss prevention concepts
   
• Maintaining a high level of emergency preparedness
   
• Utilizing third-party expertise to collaborate in the development of appropriate PPG loss prevention policies 
   

Recent highlights from PPG’s Process Safety and Loss Prevention efforts:

• PPG actively participates in trade associations including:
  • American Chemistry Council’s Process Safety Group
     
  • Center for Chemical Process Safety
     
  • Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center
     
  • Reactivity Management Roundtable
     
  • Design Institute for Emergency Relief Systems
   
• To ensure that PPG has robust, effective management systems and procedures in place to minimize process risk, the company has added trained process safety auditors to internal audit teams. 
   
• Since 2004, PPG has increased its global process safety training focus to be more proactive:
  • 85 PPG employees have completed a three day process safety workshop that was developed internally and delivered in Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Americas.
     
  • 65 PPG employees have completed a two day internal process safety auditor program in Europe and the Americas.
     
  • 81 PPG employees have completed a four day internal process risk assessment team leader training program in Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Americas. 

• Tools including the Chemical Safety Board publications, the CCPS Process Safety Beacon and the CCPS Process Safety Incident Database are used to share lessons learned from incidents worldwide.  
   
• In the area of Loss Prevention, PPG operates under the status of Highly Protected Risk, which is characterized by a high level of protection and management commitment to loss prevention, including full sprinkler protection where needed and integrated process safety programs.

• PPG has developed a Loss Prevention process that describes the steps used to manage natural hazards, fire risks, and equipment hazards in all of our facilities. For example, hurricane preparedness plans were in place in 2005 to minimize our exposure to hurricanes. Knowledge gained from Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita was used to improve our plans.