Digital Safety Delivery: How a Safety Management System Looks Different from a Data Perspective

The BowTie diagram is a graphical visualisation tool. Its purpose is to describe the structure of the safety management system in place to prevent threats from realising a top event and to mitigate the consequences if a top event were to become reality. The barriers on a BowTie diagram are traditionally shown as simple barriers (detect, diagnose, act) but in reality, are configured as complex systems. Time-series data from processing environments with the use of appropriate analytical tools can be used in conjunction to monitor and report the health of barriers and reflect upon the whole safety management system. Process Safety Performance Indicators can then be reported on a real or near-real time basis. These indicators would become more transparent from operational personnel to senior management levels thereby increasing the understanding of the health of the safety management system. Due to the real or near-real time reporting with time-series data analytical tools, management can be informed of the process status which could lead to timely decisions and actions. Process health can be monitored and reported on active dashboards with greater reliability and accuracy.