Improving Procedure Management

• Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)

• Oil & Gas

• Discrete Manufacturing
• Quality Assurance

• Asset Health Management (AHM)
• Process Control & Optimization

• System Integration

Valero Energy Corporation, North America’s largest independent refiner and marketer, operates 16 refineries and more than 5,000 retail venues. The Port Arthur refinery, located in southeastern Texas, employs over 800 employees and achieves a total production of 95,000 barrels per day. To create a safe workplace that meets OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) standards, as well as positively execute Valero’s best practice standards, Port Arthur needed a way to keep their policies and procedures accessible, orderly and accurate. Given the tough economic times, the refinery was also looking to implement a solution in the most cost-effective way possible. The Port Arthur refinery is only one of Valero’s 16 refineries. The campus consists of four complexes and more than 800 employees. In 2007, Valero corporate headquarters sent policy writers to Port Arthur to spend months rewriting and updating the refinery’s operating manuals. These procedures were maintained in a series of spreadsheets and paper copies stored at each complex and varied based on managerial preference. When the writers finished, Reggie Ramirez, Port Arthur’s Process Safety Management Coordinator, wanted to see that the procedure documents never again fell into disarray. Unfortunately, Port Arthur had no system to consistently manage the newest manuals.

Valero Energy Corporation is North America’s largest independent refiner and marketer. The company operates 16 refineries and more than 5,000 retail venues. The Port Arthur refinery, located in southeastern Texas, is one of Valero's 16 refineries. The refinery employs over 800 employees and achieves a total production of 95,000 barrels per day. The refinery is strategically located on the Texas Gulf Coast, approximately 90 miles east of Houston. The Port Arthur refinery consists of four complexes and is committed to creating a safe workplace that meets OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) standards, as well as positively executing Valero’s best practice standards.

To remedy the problem Port Arthur chose NAVEX’s PolicyTech —a web-based policy management system— to track, store and distribute their policies. The software created a system for organizing procedures with automated review and approval processes, a unique network ID for each employee to record when a document is read, and quick reports to demonstrate that employees have read the documents. With hundreds of employees accessing policies and procedures, Valero found a variety of features in PolicyTech that benefit the company in efficiency and cost savings. The system enables access based upon an employee’s unique network ID. This allows the system to dynamically filter out thousands of documents based upon the user’s role, team, department, supervisor, etc. When the user searches by keyword, regulation, date, author, etc., they search only the documents appropriate to them rather than the entire database. In a highly regulated industry, reporting is another huge consideration. With specific user IDs associated with every document viewing, employees simply click a ‘mark as read’ dialog box to certify that they’ve read and understand the document. When it comes time to check compliance, Ramirez knows exactly who has read which policies by running a report on that document.

• The system enables access based upon an employee’s unique network ID, allowing the system to dynamically filter out thousands of documents based upon the user’s role, team, department, supervisor, etc.
• The software created a system for organizing procedures with automated review and approval processes, a unique network ID for each employee to record when a document is read, and quick reports to demonstrate that employees have read the documents.
• With specific user IDs associated with every document viewing, employees simply click a ‘mark as read’ dialog box to certify that they’ve read and understand the document.

• Since 2007, eight of Valero’s refineries have purchased PolicyTech.