Process Safety:

A New Approach using AutoCAD

P&ID as the Data Link

Intelligent P&IDs do more than just improve

drawing productivity. When linked to a central
database, the P&ID can give access to information
that makes both regulatory compliance and safety
management easier. AutoCAD P&ID improves
P&ID drafting productivity and provides a link to
safety databases providing a new approach to
safety management in process facilities.

PROCESS SAFETY: A NEW APPROACH USING AUTOCAD P&ID

Safety is Number One

You see the signs everywhere, Safety is Number One. The focus is on personnel safety
at the work site and reducing accidents and while some dangerous incidents are caused
by unavoidable, random events, many more are down to not having access to the right
information at the right time or because of poor communications. With growing
globalization and sub-contractors spanning different companies and disciplines,
misunderstandings are almost inevitable. Its time to rethink the way process safety
information is created, stored and shared.
No-one denies that process safety information is generated, reviewed and stored during
the design, construction and operations of process plant and that safety reviews are an
important part of lifecycle of process facilities today. But is the safety information readily
available and easily accessible when needed? Or more importantly, before it is needed?
This whitepaper expands on this subject and describes a novel approach to integrated
safety analysis and information management which can be a basis to help meet the
demand for a comprehensive integrated process safety management system as
i
recommended by the Baker Report back in 2007. With a process plant safety information
repository, both archival and most-up-to-date information can be easily accessed to help
deal with the problem at hand.

Managing Safety Information Today

Todays process safety assessment workflow has evolved from the introduction of Hazop
Studies in the 1970s as a series of manual assessment steps, generally not joined-up and
carried out with few IT aids other than single-user standalone software tools. Few aids
have emerged for managing the safety information and attention has been focussed on
making good safety decisions through human thinking and judgement, rather than
capturing and distributing the decisions and information generated by the safety
engineers. The output from this type of workflow is typically a set of separate documents
in different formats, recorded on paper or in simple computer files.
The safety information is difficult to keep up-to-date with plant changes and its information
can degrade or be lost over time. The information recording the decisions may not be
easily understood by plant or maintenance staff, and it is difficult to summarise for higher
management reporting. There is no single location for key safety information and no
single inventory of risks and safeguards. And all this safety information needs to be
transferred to the Facility as part of the plant documentation.
This results in safety-critical information being held in different formats and files. For
example, it may be part of a company manual or included in hazard and risk assessment
reports, operating procedures or in a training manual. This disparate document-based
approach creates islands of information and requires duplicate data entry into multiple
systems, giving greater scope for human error. Vital data needed by operators may not be
available at the right time and in the right form when fast decisions are required.

A New Approach
If all process safety information were to be kept in a single, centralized repository which is
easily accessible from any location within any organization and by any authorized

PROCESS SAFETY: A NEW APPROACH USING AUTOCAD P&ID

personnel, much of the confusion could be eliminated. This need for common
understanding and a single source of information is currently driving the development of
hazardous operations (hazop) software into the P&ID environment. Every decision maker
has access to P&IDs and todays intelligent P&IDs can hold and point to a great deal of
data.
This integration creates a layer of information combining P&IDs with other hazard, risk
and safety information from across an entire enterprise in a multi-user, web-enabled
database. This gives access with search functions to any authorized employee any time
and can also provide safety audits and reports for management and regulators. The result
is a centralized database of safety information easily and directly accessible from an
intelligent P&ID.

Hazard
studies

Design Information
Process Data
Streams
Phys Properties
PID
Control Data
Plant Item Specs
etc
Global
Engineering
Integrated
Workflow

Control

Safety
Information

Action
Management
MoC
Safety Case and
Client deliverable

Intelligent P&IDs are not new. In fact many engineering firms use intelligent P&IDs as
part of the design process, using the intelligence to transfer line information into 3D
modeling, to closer integrate the detail design process with the conceptual and process
design process and to eliminate data inconsistencies between the P&IDs and 3D design
model. However, the value of the intelligent P&ID has not been fully appreciated in the
environment of the operating facility. In the past, maintaining intelligent P&IDs has
required a higher level of software implementation, understanding and training that
translates into higher costs. Recently however, intelligent P&IDs have been brought into

the currently familiar AutoCAD drafting world, allowing the benefit of intelligence to the
current AutoCAD-based P&IDs without incurring expensive re-tooling and re-training. In

fact a number of facilities are now testing the use of AutoCAD P&ID software linked to
engineering and compliance systems to help streamline compliance reporting.

PROCESS SAFETY: A NEW APPROACH USING AUTOCAD P&ID

AutoCAD P&ID a new role

The AutoCAD P&ID software is an AutoCAD-based application that includes a collection

of P&ID-specific productivity tools to help automate and simplify many of the drafting,
design and editing tasks that are performed every day. These productivity tools help
simplify the maintenance of the very important P&ID drawings, but at the same time
create a database that contains much of the information that is implied from the drawing.
Keeping the database and the drawings in sync is managed by the software in a work
process that all designers who are used to
using AutoCAD are very comfortable with.
Data input to the database is through
standard tag placement. For example,
pipeline connections are implied from the
connections made during line placement
and the size, spec and insulation
information comes directly from the line
number tag as it is placed. Piping
components automatically derive this
information from the line. Plus when the
symbols are being placed, the symbols
automatically orientated themselves to align
with the piping. From-to information derived
from the drafting also ensures that flowdependent components automatically place
correctly.

User access to the database is through the Data Manager which provides a spreadsheetlike interface to the data allowing easy editing of the data. An export/import facility allows

the data to be exported to Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for editing by other users.

PROCESS SAFETY: A NEW APPROACH USING AUTOCAD P&ID

The database is a standard SQL-based database system, giving the ability to link the
P&ID database to other databases, thus forming the P&ID interface to safety and
compliance data.

Next Steps
Hazid, a UK-based company that specializes in software for the safety of industrial
systems, has become part of the Autodesk Developer Network to connect its
developments in process safety to Autodesks intelligent P&ID software, AutoCAD P&ID.
Hazid is developing an integrated process safety management system that systematically
and continuously identifies, reduces and manages process safety risks.
Hazids 3-step safety approach linking AutoCAD P&ID to its safety systems allows safety
rules to be checked early in the design process. First, safety rules are validated against
the P&ID. P&IDs are checked for best practices to reduce time spent in safety study
meetings. The rules that are applied are in the form of safety checklists to check that the
correct safety equipment is present and that the design parameters of the safety
equipment enable the equipment to function as desired. SAFE (Safety Analysis and
Functional Evaluation) rules check the safety devices to make sure that they carry out the
correct action on the correct item in the event of an emergency .Cause and Effect Tables
are produced from these rules.

Safety Rule Violation Detected

Design checks showing details

of a failed check

PROCESS SAFETY: A NEW APPROACH USING AUTOCAD P&ID

In the second step, the Hazop process and results are stored in a central database, linked
directly to the P&ID. This allows the Hazop process to be started earlier as changes in
the P&ID do not require a full run of the Hazop Process, only those parts of the process
affected by the changes in the P&ID need to be re-evaluated. And since the results are
stored, they are easily searchable and available during the operations phase of the plant.
Finally, the Management Of Change process keeps track of changes and provides an
auditable process to be applied during the change process in P&IDs and associated data.
The end result is a safety database that is not just a series of documents created during
safety reviews, but the results of the safety checks applied throughout the process. As a
result, engineers can not only review the safety rules, but also the process by which the
specific safety checks were applied, giving more depth into understanding the safety
philosophy applied. This addresses the often asked Why did they do this? question.

Autodesk and AutoCAD are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the
USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective
holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any
time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.
2013 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

Baker III, J.A., Bowman, F.L., Erwin, G., Gorton, S., Hendershot, D., Leveson, N., Priest,
S., Rosenthal, I. Tebo, P.V., Wiegmann, D.A. & Wilson, L.D. (2007), The Report of the BP
U.S. Refineries Independent Safety Review Panel