Articles

Changes happen every day on high hazard sites. A valve gets swapped. A control setpoint is nudged. A maintenance routine is shortened because the team is stretched. A temporary bypass stays in place “just for this run”. None of these feel dramatic in the moment, right? But here’s the uncomfortable truth: incidents rarely come from… Continue reading Management of Change (MoC): The Quiet Control Barrier That Protects High Hazard Sites

Process industries have undergone significant transformation in the last few decades and with this, a shift toward process simulation. Simulation software such as ASPEN HYSYS and EDR are excellent tools for process modelling from conceptual design through to detailed analysis. Packages like HYSYS can provide a powerful platform for calculating mass and energy balance, heat… Continue reading Process Simulation – ASPEN HYSYS

Ever found yourself staring at a blank spreadsheet thinking, “We just need a number to get this moving”? You are not alone. One of the most common reasons clients contact IDEA is to obtain a cost estimate for a defined scope of work, often when the project is still taking shape. And here is the… Continue reading The Price Is Right: How to Get Cost Estimates You Can Trust for Your Industrial Project

We regularly work with distillery clients across Scotland to design and implement Process Safety Management Systems in their multi site operations. Our approach is based on the elements outlined in the Energy Institute’s High-Level Framework for Process Safety Management which has been successfully applied across a range of high hazard industries. The requirement for PSM… Continue reading Process Safety Management Systems

Distillery warehouses can look calm on the surface. Rows of casks, forklifts moving steadily, that familiar aroma of spirit in the air. But behind the romance is a very real hazard profile that needs proper attention. And not the “tick box and move on” kind either. The kind that actually protects people, keeps operations running,… Continue reading Managing ATEX Risks & DSEAR for Distillery Warehouses

Why functional safety is suddenly on everyone’s agenda If you operate in a high hazard industry, functional safety is no longer a “nice to have.” It’s one of the biggest ongoing compliance priorities, and for good reason. A well designed Safety Instrumented System can be the difference between a controlled shutdown and an incident that… Continue reading Functional Safety Support That Works in the Real World

How Important are Engineering Standards in the whisky industry❓ 🗣”Engineering standards serve as the backbone of any manufacturing industry, providing a common framework and best practices to ensure safe, efficient, and high-quality production processes. However, I often hear within the whisky industry a sentiment that applying consistent engineering standards for compliance with regulatory requirements and… Continue reading Engineering Standards in the Distillery Sector

There is an analogy in Process Safety, that there are several layers of protection before a risk will be realised and an incident may occur. This is often likened to an onion – the LOPA onion 🧅 Our process safety team have found a multitude of uses for the LOPA methodology, because of how useful… Continue reading LOPA – Layer of Protection Analysis

We carry out hazard studies at different stages of a project lifecycle. In our experience, unless a company has an experienced project team, a well-planned project and a study process, a HAZOP at the detailed design phase is often the first time a process risk assessment is carried out. The implementation of a more thorough… Continue reading HAZOP Procedure