ABB digitalizes process safety lifecycle management

ABB launches SafetyInsight™ helping customers operating high hazard processes to reduce production losses, lower maintenance costs, and optimize safety and compliance   

ABB has launched ABB Ability™ SafetyInsight™ a suite of digital software applications that support companies across the energy and process sectors throughout the entire lifecycle of process safety management (PSM).  

Operating as a central source of information the software digitalizes early Engineering Technology (ET) data to create a process safety digital twin, using this data to then give context to the vast amount of data generated through information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) systems.  

Karl Watson, global digital sales solution architect for process safety, ABB Energy Industries said: “Companies operating in high hazard industries invest significant time and effort developing the basis of safety during the engineering phase of a facility. This critical knowledge is then often left ‘on-the-shelf’, leaving operation and maintenance teams to ‘re-invent the wheel’ when it comes to understanding the hazards and risks associated with their processes.”  

Taking this unique approach of combing IT and OT data with ET data, SafetyInsight™ enables valuable engineering data (such as HAZOP and LOPA reports) to be digitalized, and readily accessible by operation and maintenance teams in simplified, intuitive, and easy to understand visual formats.  

Ongoing risk assessments can then be based on digitalized safety data. The addition of the IT/OT data provides near real time updates, enabling the accumulative impact of operation and maintenance activities to be visualized on a dynamic risk matrix, to further aid risk assessments and management of operational risk. 

Watson continued: “Engineering Technology data, like any digital twin, must be validated. SafetyInsight™ facilitates this by capturing actual operation and maintenance data in context with the early design assumptions, enabling improvement to be identified and implemented, in other words, ‘closing the loop.’ In addition to increased safety, these improvements can help minimize production downtime and reduce maintenance costs.”   

The suite delivers process safety dashboards to provide the right information, to the right person, at the right time, to make the right, informed, decision.  

Watson concluded: “ABB SafetyInsight™ along with other ABB Information Management Systems (IMS) applications have a strong track record for helping large energy companies achieve higher uptime for their assets – with one company reaching over 99%.  The software suite also supported another global energy company in reducing the annual testing of safety system valves by as much as 30%.” 

ABB Energy Industries is enabling safe, smart, and sustainable projects and operations for businesses across the oil, gas, chemicals, life sciences, power generation and water sectors.  Driving integrated solutions that automate, digitalize, and electrify industry we connect our people and technology to help our customers adapt and succeed. With over 50 years domain expertise, we continue to innovate and reshape traditional approaches across the energy sector with our technologies designed to improve operational efficiency, reduce risk, reduce energy consumption and waste.  

ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a leading global technology company that energizes the transformation of society and industry to achieve a more productive, sustainable future. By connecting software to its electrification, robotics, automation and motion portfolio, ABB pushes the boundaries of technology to drive performance to new levels. With a history of excellence stretching back more than 130 years, ABB’s success is driven by about 110,000 talented employees in over 100 countries. www.abb.com