"People don't have a natural instinct for the appreciation of change management that they should," says Bill Wray. "It's unfortunate, but sometimes it takes a tragedy to wake people up to doing the right thing." Wray, a registered Professional Engineer, works at a Bayer MaterialScience LLC polyethers plant in Channelview, Texas. His title is engineering consultant, but he actually does most of the engineering tasks at the plant.

The Bayer plant was previously owned by LyondellBasell Industries and is located in the midst of the larger LyondellBasell facility. It’s operated under contract by Lyondell. Although the name says Bayer, polyethers, not pharmaceuticals, are the plant’s product. Polyethers are used in the manufacture of urethanes. The plant uses automation systems from Yokogawa Corp. of America, a Sugar Land, Texas-based supplier with corporate headquarters in Tokyo. Wray has worked at the plant for about 30 years under four different owners and has been involved with the development of the management-of-change system.

The site experienced a tragedy in 1990—a deadly explosion. This taught everyone from management to operator the importance of a well-established management-of-change process. Adds Wray, “I honestly think this location is one of the safest chemical plants in the industry because of the response we made to the incident.” He’s been in the industry since 1986 and has seen the evolution of control and regulation over the years. One of the things that has gained importance is management of change.

Wray thinks that it takes a combination of people, culture and automation to make a good management-of-change system. “Developing a culture that includes a strong management-of-change program comes from strong procedures,” says Wray. “But before that, everyone must recognize a need for strong procedures. It can be a pain, but seemingly inconsequential changes could have big consequences. You need procedures even just to assure documentation is updated. But even with a well-established management-of-change program, you still run across problems.”

The plant has two types of change procedures—a simplified process change authorization (PCA) and a “full-blown” PCA. “The process is mainly executed on paper,” states Wray, “although we are sliding toward an automated system. Paper forms are scanned into a Documentuum (a document management product from EMC Corp., of Hopkinton, Mass.) repository.”

Change documentation

First, the initiator must identify that the proposed work is indeed a change and not just a replacement in kind, for example, replacing a motor with another motor with the same specifications but manufactured by a different supplier. Then a decision is made as to whether the change can be explained by the simplified version or whether the longer one is needed. Basically, the PCA is a long questionnaire. In the first section is a description of what the change is with any applicable drawings attached. The justification for the change is included. Then a series of questions elicits such details about the change as issues with the process, piping, rotating equipment, control, safety, environment, human factors and more.

Once the PCA form is completed, it goes to a review committee composed of representatives of all affected areas. There is a design safety review, and people from operations, environmental, reliability, process engineering and perhaps others review all elements of the request. “For example, they’ll ask if the change causes any potential for high or low pressure. If the answer is yes to any such question, then you have to document how you’ll mitigate or eliminate the risk,” adds Wray. “We look at process chemistry, valves, rotating equipment and facility siting if a temporary building is required.” The company has also started to execute a PCA when there are personnel or staffing changes. For instance, if a staff reduction is anticipated, a team does a PCA to study the impact.

After everyone signs off on the authorization, then the change is executed. But that doesn’t end the process. Each craft involved in the change must sign off on whether the change was installed to the drawings. If not, redlined drawings must be included in order to complete the paperwork.

Wray believes that companies with a strong management-of-change process have a competitive advantage over those who don’t for one simple, but crucial reason. “If you don’t properly manage change, you’ll have an accident. And an accident can’t be conducive to competitive advantage. You’ll have injuries, bad press, fines, costs of repair—so definitely, a good change process gives you a competitive advantage over someone who doesn’t.”

Every automation supplier interviewed for this article incorporates change management within its automation system. Engineers ...