"We're excited about this programme because it is squarely in the interests of the safety of our workers, as well as the health of the businesses that contribute to our economy," said SANAS' CEO, Ron Josias.
The main benefit of risk-based inspection is to manage and minimise the likelihood and consequences of plant failures, and thereby avoid unreasonable risks of harm to people and the environment.
The new accreditation programme was recently launched during a workshop held in Pretoria. Those who attended included various stakeholders involved in risk-based inspection establishment, implementation, maintenance and consultation services to users of pressurised vessels and steam generators (as defined in the Pressure Equipment Regulation of 2009).
During the workshop, both the SANAS accreditation and DoL approval processes were presented.
"We trust industry users that have implemented RBI will apply for their risk-based inspection management system to be certified by SANAS-accredited certification bodies and get approval from DoL," he added.
One of the main reasons for risk-based inspection is to optimise the costs of complying with statutory obligations for health and safety. In addition to the potential harm to people and the environment, failures almost always have a direct or indirect effect that is harmful to the business of the user.
For example: lost production, reputational risk, cost of post-incident follow-up and replacement of equipment, higher insurance premiums and costs of legal action.
Inspection bodies and users in industries have traditionally followed a prescriptive inspection philosophy.
"This has often been criticised for causing excessive plant downtime leading to unnecessary loss of production and operating revenue," noted Josias. In some cases, inspection can see plants returning to service in a less-safe condition. For example, some equipment only suffers degradation as a result of being opened up for a visual examination.
For other plants, the most onerous condition is experienced at either start-up or shut-down. In these cases, there are strong arguments for inspection being carried out less often or non-intrusively. Equipment is not only shut down for inspection, but also for maintenance purposes.
Risk-based inspection involves the planning of an inspection in the workplace done on the basis of the information obtained from a risk analysis of the pressurised equipment. The purpose of the risk analysis is to identify the potential degradation mechanisms and threats to the integrity of the equipment, and to assess the consequences and risks of failure. The inspection plan can then target the high-risk equipment and be designed to detect potential degradation before fitness for service could be threatened.
Pressure Equipment Regulation (PER) states that users may, as an alternative to the in-service inspection and testing interval requirements for every pressure vessel and steam generator (excluding those referred to in sub-regulation (3) of PER) subject pressure vessels and steam generators to internal and external inspections and hydraulic tests to a pressure of 1.25 times the design pressure.
This needs to be done by a DoL-approved inspection authority officially appointed by users at intervals not exceeding 36 months. The users may implement a risk-based inspection management system in accordance with the relevant health and safety standard incorporated into the PER.
The regulation further states that the risk-based inspection process must be verified by certification bodies accredited by the accreditation authority, i.e. SANAS in terms of ISO 17021, and approved by the chief inspector of the DoL.
The Minister of Labour has, under section 43 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993 (Act No. 85 of 1993), issued Pressure Equipment 1147369 Regulations that recognises the use of Risk-Based Inspection (RBI) implemented by users of pressure vessels and steam generator industries. These regulations have tasked SANAS with the responsibility of developing an accreditation programme that will recognise risk-based inspection certification bodies that will be used by industries.
SANAS accreditation is recognised internationally as a reliable method of confirming the technical competence of conformity assessment bodies (CABs) such as certification bodies and inspection bodies. SANAS, as South Africa's sole accreditation body, provides formal recognition of CABs' technical competence to perform certification functions as per their scope of accreditations. SANAS is recognised by the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and International Accreditation Forum (IAF).
SANAS's responsibility is to perform technical competence assessment of the certification bodies. Accreditation has proven to reduce risk and enhance public confidence in the results that are produced from accredited CABs. "SANAS's goal is to be providing third-party attestation of the technical competence of the certification bodies that will be certifying users of risk-based inspection," concluded Josias.
