Paper: How to Design Production Facilities for Safe Operations

When designing a Production Facility, many engineers and production foremen are confronted with a multitude of codes, standards, best practices and even OSHA requirements. Often, the facility design is based on old outdated codes, standards, or practices. Lack of proper engineering design can lead to equipment failure, lost production, human injury or harm to the environment.
The safety of a facility is a direct function of how the facility is designed. The oil and gas industry has produced many codes and standards, which were developed primarily in response to incidents that had occurred. Understanding and learning how to apply the various codes and standards can greatly increase the operability and safety of facilities.
This paper reviews the key area of facility design that is critical to a safe facility. The paper explains how the different codes, standards and best practices can be used to develop safe and cost effective facilities.