A Practical Framework for Mandatory Job Safety Analysis Embedded in the Permit-to-Work System and Application to Gas Industry

Mistakes in inspection, maintenance and work are the main causes of incidents that result in losses in plants as well as casualties of workers and neighboring residents. Thus, the permit-to-work (PTW) for safe work plays a key role in preventing incidents. The most important function of the PTW is to present various work-related potential hazards and utilize them for safety management by workers and managers. This paper presents a practical framework including detailed configurations of the hazard inventory in order to enable companies to implement the Job Safety Analysis (JSA) embedded in the PTW system that is most appropriate for identifying hazards, but difficult to obligate due to the heavy workload from a great number of work permits. This framework is characterized by categorization of hazards into task-level and job-level and the safety management system (SMS)-linked structure for supporting JSA and sound hazard data management. Furthermore, the process of implementing this framework into a working system linked to the SMS/PTW system of KOGAS and its effective results are presented. Ultimately, this paper demonstrates a practical framework that enhances job safety and the efficiency of work when implementing obligatory JSA, which should be ideally embedded in the PTW system for the safety of the most polymorphic work.