Delete your next headache
Going to be organising a HAZOP soon? Already organising HAZOPs and you just have one problem to the next?
How do you buy a HAZOP (or anything) if you don't know what you're buying?
You do a google search and pick 3 reasonable looking companies, send them an email and hope that one will come back with a reasonable price and proposal. This sounds like a reasonable plan until you start asking yourself "What do I put in the email?". You draft something and get some quotes back, wow they couldn't be more different. One is 5 days, another is 3 days and one says they can do the job in a day and a half. Obviously the prices vary wildly. Which one to choose? The middle one right?
If you have bought a HAZOP before and been loaded with difficult to close actions, a report which never arrives or a massive overrun in the meeting you will know this is not a simple task.
So I have made this easy for you. I have developed a template to buy a HAZOP through an email enquiry for both project (or new facility) and management of change (at an existing facility) style HAZOPs. You just need to edit the grey bits and delete as appropriate. I have even given you a list of documents you may send through with the request, what you need to get ready for the kick off meeting and some standard table of contents for the terms of reference and the report.
Making sure you are comparing equivalent quotes is important. Buying a HAZOP which is under-estimated will not result in less overall HAZOP time. The HAZOP will generally take the same amount of time (with a margin of error).
Buying the wrong HAZOP will delay your schedule, result in upset in your team and potentially result in schedule growth and unidentified hazards.
What will you get in the document?
A short introduction explaining the reasoning behind getting good quality quotes to compare.
A "things to remember" section. This has some tips about non-disclosure agreements and it has some formulas to allow you to check if the duration proposed is in the correct ballpark (for both project and management of change HAZOP). It also includes some information about making decisions about number of days to HAZOP and duration of the meeting.
Then there are 4 templates depending the situation you find yourself in. From the template you edit the grey text, delete where needed and attach the documents required. I have also given you a heads up on what you need to provide once you select your facilitator. In this section you have an opportunity to define how you want your report to look, which software and what qualifications are required. Everything you need to tailor the quotes to your needs. If you want to provide more freedom then just remove elements accordingly being cautious that you will have to make these decisions eventually or live with what the facilitator decides.