 | ipeline |  | ervices |  | orporation |
| ipeline | | ervices | | orporation |
|
The Office of Pipeline Safety now requires that any person who performs a covered task on a pipeline system must be qualified to perform that task. The regulation is a performance based rule which goes beyond training. Each employee must be evaluated and demonstrate the ability to a) perform the assigned covered task and b) recognize and react to abnormal operating conditions for the task. Under this new regulation, pipeline companies are responsible for identifying which operational tasks are covered, which employees are required to perform each covered task, what mechanism will be used to evaluate each employee, and the length of time the qualification for each covered task is valid. Each company must be able to justify the decisions for each task and each employee qualification. Within eighteen months of the effective date of the regulation every pipeline company must have their complete program in place. Qualifier™ is created to assist in the development of the program and make the implementation of it more efficient. Qualifier™ includes the complete Code of Federal Regulations part 192 and part 195 in its database to assist in the covered task evaluation process. |
|
The Pipeline Services Corporation Qualifier™ system is a database system designed to satisfy the requirements of the Office of Pipeline Safety “Operator Personnel Qualification Rule”. The Qualifier™ system integrates personnel records, covered task database, qualification tracking, the Code of Federal Regulations, and reporting capabilities to allow each pipeline company to comply with the regulations and maintain the required level of operator personnel qualification. The Qualifier™ system is designed to be used by all pipelines who are subject to 49CFR192 and 49CFR195; these pipelines include:
· Natural Gas Transmission
Qualifier™ uses the covered task and employee databases to maintain the complete qualification history of every employee. The system uses efficient logic to dramatically reduce the amount of data entry required to create and maintain the qualification database. By allowing covered tasks to be related to job classifications, an employee record can have all of the appropriate covered tasks automatically assigned simply by selecting the employees job title. The flexibility of the system to track employees of multiple companies, as well as multiple pipelines within a company centralizes all record keeping for this regulation into one easy to use system. Qualifier™ successfully addresses the unique record keeping requirements of the operator qualification regulation. It maintains the employee database, the covered task database, each individual employee qualification database, allows revisioning of tasks, and provides a complete reporting facility so that all questions from pipeline regulators may be immediately answered. Qualifier™ condenses mountains of paperwork and endless hours of record keeping into a complete and concise relational database.
Each employee has a list of covered tasks for which they must be qualified. Qualifier™ maintains a complete record of which tasks an employee is qualified for and which tasks have yet to be qualified for. The system tracks which employees require subsequent qualification, allows covered task to be revised and automatically updates every associated employee record with the new revision and identifies them so that they may be qualified on the new revision.
Record keeping is the centerpiece of the qualification regulation. The efficiency with which a pipeline company develops the qualification program and is able to retrieve and maintain records will directly impact their ability to demonstrate compliance to pipeline regulators. The large number of tasks, and the number of employees which must be qualified to perform them make the Qualifier™ a necessity for every pipeline company. The flexibility in the regulation makes traditional training program software packages simply inadequate to deal with the requirements for record keeping. Qualifier™ is designed for this regulation and is therefore completely capable of handling the flexibility of the regulation.
Each pipeline company must maintain records showing current qualification for every person who performs a covered task on the pipeline. This means that records for any contract personnel, personnel from sister companies or subsidiaries, as well as pipeline employees must be maintained by the pipeline company. Qualifier™ is designed to allow not only multiple companies but multiple pipelines as well in the database. This design helps consolidate all record keeping for any company into one efficient location.
The regulation specifies a four part test which pipeline companies will use to define a covered task. The four criteria are: · Is it performed on a pipeline facility? · Is it an operations or maintenance task? · Is it performed as a requirement of part 192 or 195? · Does It affect the operation or integrity of the pipeline? If a task satisfies these criteria it is defined as a covered task. If a task does not satisfy one or more of the tests, Qualifier™ provides the ability to include the justification as to why the task failed the test. This allows rapid response to queries from the pipeline regulators regarding the decision process.
Qualifier™ provides a reporting capability which allows either on screen or hard copy reports for almost any combination of data that is requested. From the list of qualifications due in the next month to which employees are affected by a change in a covered task. The strength of the relational database is that information regarding any employee or any task is immediately available to answer specific questions from pipeline regulators.
Qualifier™ is available for demonstration purposes. The product is fully functional for a limited time from the date of installation. This allows a pipeline company to test the program and begin populating the database. After purchasing the program, a valid registration ID number is provided which removes the time limitation on the use of the program. All data entered during the demonstration mode is valid after purchasing the product so that no time or information is lost. Pipeline Services Corporation will be pleased to provide a demonstration for evaluation purposes. |
| The newly negotiated regulation requires a flexibility in record keeping that is not found in standard training program software. Pipeline companies are responsible for identifying whether tasks are covered or not, which employees are required to perform each covered task, what mechanism will be used to evaluate each employee, and the length of time the qualification for each covered task is valid. |
|
The Qualifier™ Record Keeping system efficiently manages the record keeping requirements of the newly implemented Operator Personnel Qualification Regulation from the Office of Pipeline Safety.
Qualifier™ was designed specifically to satisfy the tremendous record keeping requirements imposed by the regulation. Qualifier™ includes the following major components which assist pipeline operators in reducing the time, energy and effort to implement and achieve compliance with the regulation:
|
|
· Pentium Processor · Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0 Operating System · 8 Megabytes RAM · 10 Megabytes available hard disk storage for installation · 50 Megabytes available hard disk storage for data expansion |
| Qualifier™ has been tested for, and is compliant with, the year 2000 requirements. All date fields in the database are stored in four character format, i.e. 1998, 1999, 2000. |
Click Here to Download QUAL.EXE (1089723 Bytes)
Click Here to Download PKUNZIP.EXE (29378 Bytes)
Note: This is a .ZIP file which must be unzipped using PKUNZIP.EXE to extract the file QUAL.EXE (also available uncompressed below).
This must be copied over the existing QUAL.EXE.
Note: This must be copied over the existing QUAL.EXE.
P. O. Box 21595
Mesa, AZ 85277-1595
(480) 324-8200
Fax: (480) 324-8201
Email: info@pipeserve.com
