In high-risk industries, ensuring the safety of workers is a top priority. One of ABB’s customers, a company in the Dutch oil and gas sector, has been focusing on improving the safety of its offshore operations through digitalization of its process safety lifecycle.
The company started using ABB Ability™ SafetyInsight™ in 2021, a solution meant for high-hazard industries where the safety of people at and near the plant is crucial. The solution improves operational efficiency throughout the organization by developing an optimum basis of safety, ensuring operational risks are managed, identifying opportunities for improvement, and optimizing the overall cost of safety.
The customer described their experience as a collaborative journey over the last five years of using the SafetyInsight solution for their process. In 2022, they began considering a new Hazard and Operability Analysis (HAZOP) for their offshore facilities. With Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA) and Safety Integrity Level (SIL) already integrated in SafetyInsight, ABB advised that the solution would simplify HAZOP management.
When safety is a priority
The Software as a Service-based (SaaS) SafetyInsight includes various risk assessment processes, such as HAZOP and LOPA modules. HAZOP supports various hazard identification processes and LOPA is a method used to understand the risk tolerance level of a company. With such assessment frameworks, SafetyInsight minimizes engineering efforts, provides lifecycle management and digital records for maintenance teams, and helps with industry compliance.
The SafetyInsight solution also allows for the customer’s safety system study to be performed in a cyber secure environment. Additionally, ABB maintains the database and the user list while ensuring the customer remains worry-free. “Offering our solutions via SaaS is a major part of our digital strategy. SaaS provides customers with quick access to our applications and new releases, significantly shortening time to value,” said Karl H. Watson, SafetyInsight Sales & Business Development at ABB. SafetyInsight also digitalizes the basis of safety and creates a process safety digital twin, helping operators to play with the features of the solution and understand the risk-to-safety equation.
The customer highlighted that integrating the identification, verification, and evaluation of hazardous events in one tool is the future of the safety lifecycle. Based on the customer's feedback, ABB was keen to improve the HAZOP module to reach the required standards. ABB’s SaaS support team showed excellent engagement during the transition to the SaaS-based ABB Ability™ SafetyInsight™.
