Effectiveness of the Risk Based Inspection process in the Sasol business in South Africa

In an era where companies need to be cost-effective in their operations without compromising safety or performance, a significant amount of effort is being directed towards the process of Risk Based Inspection (RBI). RBI addresses technical risks by means of establishing appropriate inspection strategies for equipment and is currently being utilised by Sasol petro-chemical businesses in South Africa. Although several organisations, especially petro-chemical, are incorporating RBI into their business strategies, little is known on the challenges involved in the successful implementation of RBI within an organisation. This paper researches the effectiveness of the RBI process currently followed in Sasol (Sasolburg) with emphasis on the adoption of the approach by personnel as well as business and personnel factors such as competency and training. The extent of management support and how it influences the company´s RBI process are also investigated. The research was undertaken by means of a questionnaire completed by different role players who participate actively in the RBI process, influencing the outcomes or who are directly affected by the results of the process. The results obtained suggest that the expertise and preparation of the process personnel involved with the RBI process is lacking and that there is a definite shortage of RBI facilitators and training in the organisation.