Primer: Safety in Design

The Primer can be downloaded here. It is a .pdf file, priced at $25.

Safety in Design is the foundation of every safe operation. It determines not only how a facility performs under normal conditions, but how it behaves when things go wrong. Decisions made during the design phase fix the limits of what operators and engineers can later achieve. Once a hazard is built in, it is expensive — often impossible — to  remove.

Effective design begins with elimination: what you don’t have can’t leak. But safety also depends on anticipation of degraded modes, utility losses, human error, and the slow erosion of protective layers over time. A sound design does not rely on optimism; it assumes failure and provides a safe way out.

Modern tools such as digital twins, advanced analytics, and virtual reviews extend the designer’s reach, yet they do not change the essential responsibility. Safe design is not achieved by technology alone but by disciplined engineering judgment and respect for physical limits.

Ultimately, Safety in Design is not a project deliverable but a way of thinking. It links every element of process safety into a coherent system built on foresight. The best evidence of success is not the complexity of the safeguards, but the quiet reliability of a plant that operates year after year without incident because it was designed to be safe from the start.