The MOC Process is an essential tool for Modern Industrial Organizations to maintain safety and environmental compliance while maximizing production. This process is one of the cornerstones of an effective Process Safety Management Program. It insures that the complete scope of the change is identified and addressed. While the details of the MOC Process will necessarily vary from organization to organization, there are certain steps that are fundamental. MetaPower provides the following MOC Configuration as a basic offering.
Figure 1 illustrates the basic MOC Process Steps.
Initiate MOC: While MOCs can be initiated manually, they are typically initiated from another process, such as the Condition Report. The Initiate MOC Step requires a complete description of the change and the organization that is assigned to manage the following step in the process. The changes managed by the process can be very complex and critical to the organization or they may be rather straight forward and of relatively small consequence. The Initiate MOC Step provides the facility to route complex, critical changes to the Evaluate MOC Step for complete evaluation, route complex but less critical changes to the Plan MOC Step for planning or route simple changes to the Implement MOC Step without a formal evaluation or plan.
Evaluate MOC: In the Evaluate MOC Step, Management reviews the proposed change and if they wish to proceed, the MOC is assigned to an individual to determine the full impact of the change on the organization. When available, Checklists are used to determine who in the organization needs to evaluate each type of change. An “Evaluation” Work Action with a description of the change is sent to each organization that needs to evaluate the change’s impact on its area of responsibility. Work Actions are returned to the MOC Process with a description of the change impacts. This information is assembled into a change evaluation report that is submitted to management for disposition. If it is determined that the change should not be implemented, the MOC is closed. If it is a rather simple change with limited impacts, it may be routed to the Implement MOC Step. If the change is large and complex, it will be routed to the Plan MOC Step.
Plan MOC: Implementation tasks and their associated schedule dates and resources are prepared for all the affected areas. If the change is large and complex, “Planning” Work Actions are sent to the responsible organization to develop the detail estimates. This information is used to prepare an MOC Implementation Plan. Changes that consume significant resources will be submitted to the Budgeting Process to determine a schedule for when funds can be allocated to the change. Lower cost changes that have a high benefit will proceed to the Implement MOC Step and use available expense funding.
Implement MOC: This Step interfaces with the Work Action Process to implement the changes. “Implementation” Work Actions are created for each task in the MOC Implementation Plan and routed to the Responsible Organization. The Implement MOC Step enables the facility to keep track of the various tasks and to access individual task information as necessary and appropriate. Once the Change has been installed, the MOC is routed to the Commission MOC Step.
Commission MOC: After the Implement MOC Step is complete the change is place in-service. The nature of the change has a significant impact on the commissioning process. Physical Plant changes may require a Pre-Startup Safety Review (PSSR) to validate that the change has been executed in accordance with the applicable specifications. Business Process Changes require a rollout process to ensure that all requirements are incorporated and the process is integrated with the organization’s culture. Simple changes may not require any significant commissioning. When Commissioning is complete, the MOC is routed to the Validate MOC Step or to the Complete MOC Step. Critical Changes that need to be verified are routed to the Validate MOC Step. The MOCs for other changes are routed to the Complete Step where they are listed as achieved.
Verify MOC: The Verify MOC Step specifies the actions needed to ensure that the change had the intended affects. The verification can be accomplished under a “Verification” Work Action or an Observation depending on the nature of the verification task. The Verify MOC Step provides the requirements and tracks the actions used to perform the verification. In some cases, this may require that the MOC remain open for a significant period of time.
Complete MOC: Once the Change has been completed and verified as required, the MOC is closed and the records are filed.
MetaPower uses our patented web based Business Process Designer to automate business processes and maintain a library of configured processes. These pre-configured processes are used “out of the box” or reconfigured by the users to accommodate their specific business situations.
