Whitepaper: Six Feet Under | How to Dig Yourself Out of a Recommendations Graveyard
- 20 hours ago
- 1 min read
Abstract
April 2026 — Emily Henry, PE(SC), CFSE, Functional Safety Group Manager — Have you felt buried under six feet of safety study recommendations that must be closed? Does it feel impossible to follow Recognized and Generally Accepted Good Engineering Practices (RAGAGEPs) to convert recommendations into engineered design reality? You are not alone.
To improve Process Safety, Capital Project and Operating teams must move recommendations from the hazard analysis stage through to a capital funding request, detailed design, construction execution, commissioning, startup, and operation. These steps are all part of the familiar Capital Projects process, but for Process Safety recommendations, they are also part of the Safety Life Cycle (SLC) journey based in ISA standards. Having an internal resource or external partner who is versed in both the Capital Projects process and the SLC process can alleviate recommendation closure challenges.
This whitepaper discusses key lessons learned across multiple projects between an end-user and an SLC partner to ensure recommendations move to closure based on the intent of the risk assessment. It will also demonstrate how to go from being an owner-operator in a graveyard full of recommendations to living the high-life of PSM, Capital Projects, and SLC by identifying risk gaps and closing them in a timely, cost-effective, and safety-conscious framework.
