Work Permit System

Work Permit System

To ensure safety of personnel, to prevent environmental pollution & to avoid damage to equipment, all routine and non-routine maintenance / construction work to be carried out after obtaining permit to work from authorized personnel.

Before authorizing the permit to work, the hazards involved in execution of activities are to be  identified; associated risks are to be assessed and same to be controlled before authorizing the permit to work. 

The work permits also serves as an official record of those established conditions as agreed upon by the issuer and acceptor of the permit

Definitions

Cold Work: Cold Work is an activity, which does not produce sufficient heat or spark to ignite a flammable or combustible material.

Hot Work: Hot work is any work which produces heat / spark / flame or other source of ignition having sufficient energy to cause ignition of any flammable or combustible material exists. 

Confined Space Work: : It is an enclosure with known or potential hazards and restricted means of entrance and exit, is not normally occupied by people, and is usually not well ventilated.

Work at Height: Activity performed on any temporary structure / fragile roof / at elevated locations.

Issuer: Person authorized to issue the work permit. Generally, who is competent in work area preparation for safe execution of job.

Acceptor: Person authorized to accept work permit. Generally a work performing authority.

Permit to Work System: A Permit to Work system is a formal written system used to control certain type of work which are identified as potentially hazardous. It is also a means of communication between site/ installation management, plant supervisors and operators & those who carry out the work. The essential features of PTW system are:
 Clear identification of who may authorize particular jobs (and any limits to their authority & also who is responsible for specifying the necessary precautions.
 Training & instruction in the issue & use of permits
 Monitoring & auditing to ensure that the system works as intended.

Work Permit Processes

The purpose of work permit is to ensure safe execution of jobs by adherence to specific procedures for issuance of work permit, compliance of agreed conditions in the permit during work execution and closure of permit when the job is complete.
The work permit process involves different category of people such as: Issuer, Acceptor, Approver I, Approver II, Approver III, Area operator, Gas tester, Contract worker, stand by person etc.
The issuer is responsible for and controls the entire work permit process.
Work Permit is made in duplicate. The first copy is the acceptor copy given to the acceptor, and the acceptor displays his copy at the job location to make the area personnel aware of the job in progress and is readily available for audit. The issuer retains the second copy for control of work activities and for record purposes.
A request for work permit comes from either the issuer or the acceptor. Except for emergency jobs, all work should normally be planned in advance.