We Stop if the Unexpected Occurs

One of the ten Process Safety Fundamentals

Often process safety incidents have occurred when an activity has deviated from the expected path, but those involved have continued anyway or informally adapted the plan on-the-run. While this may be well-intended, to get the job done, it has the potential to lead down a path that has not been fully evaluated and risk assessed.

This process safety fundamental highlights the importance of recognising when things are not progressing as expected and being disciplined about stopping or pausing to understand what has changed and why things are not as planned.

🔺 We discuss the work plan and what signals would tell us it is proceeding as expected

🔺 We pause and ask questions when signals and conditions are not as expected.

🔺 We stop and alert supervision if the activity is not proceeding as expected.

PSF We Stop if the Unexpected Occurs Video

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