Consultation. Facilitation. Instruction.
Questions answered. Documentation developed. Teams prepared.
Our story in a nutshell.
Started in 2008 at the request of its first customer, Bluefield Process Safety has grown from three clients in three states its first year to over 90 customers at more than 185 sites across the United States, and has conducted projects for customers in China, India, Canada, South America, Africa, and the Middle East. Projects have ranged in size from three to six figures. About half of Bluefield’s projects have been repeat projects, either with groups we’ve worked with before, with different units at the same plant, or at sister plants that needed help and after asking around within their organization, came to us.
Being a small, privately held company, Bluefield Process Safety is able to provide process safety consulting to the chemical, petrochemical, refinery, and oil and gas industries nimbly and responsively. Bluefield is headquartered in St. Louis and welcomes the opportunity to serve clients around the globe. We can be there tomorrow if you need us. We’ll fly coach.
Bluefield’s work falls in three areas: Consultation, Facilitation & Instruction.
Consultation.
Much of what we do involves answering questions and developing documentation. Need a Safety Requirements Specification before your SIS vendor can quote price and delivery? We do that. Need to discuss the design of a Safety Instrumented Function or get some SIL verification calculations done? We do that, too.
Facilitation.
Some tasks are best done by a group: PHAs, LOPAs, DHAs, establishing RTC. A group is more efficient and effective when facilitated, and Bluefield Process Safety takes facilitation seriously. Good preparation and a focus on the goal keep the team moving and typically gets done in less than half the time the team would otherwise spend. And serious doesn’t have to mean boring or joyless. We’re serious, but we might as well have fun, too.
Instruction.
Not only does Bluefield Process Safety have instructors authorized to offer the OSHA General Industry 10-hour and 30-hour training, we have developed a portfolio of classes to train your staff on the entire safety life cycle. Depending on the audience, we may even bring the same material we use in graduate-level engineering courses.
We give our customers the tools we develop.
Our business model is simple: We make a living by selling our time.
The tools we’ve developed to do our work, we give to our customers. Use them if they help—it will make the world a safer place. When you come back to us, it will be because you trust us, not because you are hostage to our software tools. We’re your friends and advisors, not shamans of safety doling out received wisdom from the mountain tops. Process safety is not just what we do—it’s who we are.
Testimonials
“Bluefield assisted Doe Run in improving safety at our secondary lead smelter facility by adapting and applying traditional PSM methods, including hazard identification and risk assessment, to our battery breaking, separation, and neutralization process. The entire team at Bluefield takes a truly altruistic approach to process safety that is extremely refreshing in today’s environment. Their willingness to share not only the knowledge they possess, but the tools they have developed to channel this knowledge, is unparalleled. I would strongly recommend Bluefield to anyone looking to improve process safety at their facility.”
“Working with Bluefield Process Safety for over 7 years has been an uplifting experience that has provided Harcros Chemicals unprecedented peace of mind. With the ever-increasing regulatory oversight our industry has seen recently Mike Schmidt and his team have professionally provided accurate products and services that meet or exceed our expectations and comply with local, state and federal regulations. The in-depth training and advice provided by Mike and his team have been instrumental in creating and maintaining a safety culture we can be proud of. Bluefield’s commitment and sound work ethic deliver exceptional support and sustainable solutions that work.”
“We have used Bluefield Process Safety for a couple of projects and found them great to work with. Bluefield provided us the technical expertise we were looking for to complete our PSM audit at an affordable price with timely well-written reports. Their knowledge of all things PSM makes Bluefield a valuable resource for anything related to process safety and risk management.”
“The Bluefield Process Safety team takes a common sense approach to complex safety regulations. In addition to meeting the agreed to scope of a given project, they take the time to verify that each member of the team (and anyone else that they may encounter) have a good understanding of what the regulation means and how it applies to them. I would definitely recommend them to any facility who needs a safety consultant!”
“The services and guidance that Bluefield Process Safety provided to our company over the years has helped us build our local Process Safety Management program to the highest level. The staff are very knowledgeable, timely and helpful in responding to requests for help. I would fully recommend their services.”
“The inconsistency and quality of our previous PHAs have been an issue for our site, and Bluefield helped us get to a point where we now have quality reports that reflect our real risks. In the past, we purchased licensed software that was costly and had to be updated every couple of years, and we couldn’t even open up our own documents once the license expired. With Bluefield the reports become your property and there’s no software to purchase and constantly pay to update. We just completed a third-party week long PSM audit, and both auditors were impressed with how well the PHA and LOPA reports were put together, and there were no compliance findings related to PHAs! It’s been a friendly working relationship over the last few years, and I’ve always been able to pick up the phone and call them with any PHA/PSM questions I might have.”
“We have contracted with Bluefield Process Safety for our RMP and PSM compliance audits and have been very pleased with their method of conducting the audits, feedback they have provided during and following the audits and the thoroughness of their findings.”
“I have had the opportunity to work with Bluefield Process Safety on several occasions and consider them a partner in our effort to maintain a strong PSM program. You can count on them to have highly knowledgeable associates producing exceptional quality work in a timely manner.”
“During times of a heavy workload, Bluefield safety proved to be an exceptional selection for a supplemental PSM resource. They were able to easily understand our systems and incorporate RAGAGEPs into decisions, to ensure we stayed current with peer industries. In addition they were able to assist in a very timely and cost effective manner. We consider them an extension to our PSM resources.”
“Bluefield provided excellent support and process safety expertise for our project. Their knowledge and insight on safety instrumented systems was outstanding. The assistance they provided went beyond the scope of the project and will help our facilities continue to improve in our process safety performance going forward.”