In 1993, five companies initiated a project to better understand the problem of managing abnormal situations. A study team was formed to visit several operations facilities to better understand the abnormal situation management challenge and identify the requirements to improve operations team's ability to prevent and respond to abnormal situations. The 1993 project team's findings were powerful enough to motivate several industry competitors to form a research and development consortium to work together to develop solutions to plant safety. This paper summarizes the key findings of this foundational 1993 study that lead to the founding of the Abnormal Situation Management (ASM) Joint Research and Development Consortium, which is commemorating its 20th year working together. More importantly, this paper examines the progress made over the past 20+ years against the ASM requirements identified in that foundational study in terms of (i) industry's understanding of the contribution of human reliability to major process safety incidents and (ii) the implications for operations practices to effectively manage human reliability in reducing risks that may contribute to process safety incidents. The ASM historical perspective is intended to show where progress has been made and where there are still gaps in effective solutions to improve human reliability and process safety.
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