Process Safety & Barriers (SECE)
Govern the Safety and Environmental Critical Elements (SECEs) that prevent Major Accident Hazards. Real-time barrier impairment tracking and API 584 Integrity Operating Windows (IOW) with automatic exceedance detection.
Who It Is For
HSE managers, process safety engineers, and facility directors operating under OSHA PSM (29 CFR 1910.119), EU Seveso III, UK COMAH, or NORSOK regimes. Designed for facilities where a single barrier failure can trigger a Major Accident Hazard and where the regulator expects every barrier impairment to be tracked, justified, and resolved with documented evidence.
Capabilities
SECE Register with Performance Standards
Flag safety-critical equipment in the asset register and bind each SECE to its written Performance Standard (e.g. 'Closes in under 3 seconds at 5 bar differential'). Inspections, function tests, and PMs are tied to the standard — not just to a generic interval.
Real-Time Barrier Impairment Tracking
When a function test fails, a PM is overdue, or a barrier component is taken out of service for maintenance, the asset's operational status is automatically downgraded. Open impairments are visible on the safety dashboard with named owner, deadline, and required mitigation.
API 584 Integrity Operating Windows
Define Standard, Critical, and Survival limits for process variables (temperature, pressure, pH, sulphur, etc.). Live process data from your historian is monitored against these bands. Exceedances are logged with duration and severity, and the platform calculates accelerated damage rates for affected equipment.
Closed-Loop Restoration Governance
An impairment cannot close until a qualified engineer documents the verification evidence — re-test pass record, PM completion, replacement component certificate. Every barrier-related decision is hash-chained into the immutable audit log.
Outcome
Shift from periodic 'safety case' reviews that capture a static snapshot to continuous, real-time barrier governance. Facility leadership knows at any moment how many critical barriers are impaired, who owns each restoration, and when it must close. Regulator visits move from defensive reconstruction to confident demonstration — the records are already there, hash-chained and exportable in one click.
Key Capabilities
- SECE flagging on asset register with Performance Standard binding
- Function-test and PM compliance tracking per safety barrier
- Real-time operational status downgrade on barrier impairment
- API 584 IOW definition: Standard, Critical, Survival bands per variable
- Historian integration for live process-variable monitoring
- Accelerated damage-rate calculation on IOW exceedance
- Immutable audit log of every barrier impairment and restoration
- Safety-barrier health scorecard for facility leadership
Strategic Benefits
- Support barrier evidence for PSM, COMAH, Seveso III, and NORSOK audits
- Catch impairments and IOW exceedances in real time, not at the next review
- Eliminate undocumented barrier overrides — every state change is logged
- Quantify accelerated damage and feed it back into RBI inspection intervals
- Defend the facility's safety case with a live, immutable evidence chain
Tour the SECE Module
See how barrier impairments flow from the field to the executive dashboard.