10. Safety: a source of progress or a brake on innovation?

Analyzing the risks of any activity requires an intimate knowledge of processes. Simply put, a process is an activity that can be as simple as turning off a tap, or as complicated as hiring a new executive.

The company uses thousands of processes. Procedures are written down processes that are absolutely essential in the process industries, whether for starting up or shutting down a plant, managing a warehouse or repairing a pump. The "process book", the guardian of production unit procedures, must be in the right place in the control room.

Safety requires knowledge of processes. This is the hallmark of quality management systems, the very basis of certification.

Safety and quality are part and parcel of the same approach, and both tend to "rigidify the system", to oppose change, or at least to make change time-consuming....