The glossary: plain definitions, no fog.

Rounds and records

Operator round

A scheduled walk of a defined route through operating plant, during which a competent operator checks specific points — readings, conditions, sounds, states — and leaves a record that the plant was watched. Every word is load-bearing; the full unpacking has its own page.See: What is an operator round? · The Complete Guide

Plant walkdown

A structured walk of plant. Strictly, a walkdown is often one-off and purpose-specific — pre-startup verification, post-maintenance checks, a readiness review — where a round recurs on a schedule. Plenty of sites use the words interchangeably; what matters is whether the walk is defined, scheduled and recorded, not what it's called.See: What is an operator round?

Append-only record

A record in which entries are never edited or deleted once written — corrections add new entries rather than replacing old ones. This is the structural difference between a record and evidence: a system with an edit button produces records with less evidential value than paper, because paper at least shows the crossing-out.See: Records vs evidence

Evidence pack

An exportable bundle of records assembled to answer an audit question whole: what was defined, what was due, what was done, what was found. A serious pack is printable and carries a reproducible integrity fingerprint, so the person receiving it can verify it wasn't tampered with after export.See: The evidence pack on the product page

Pencil-whipping

Filling in a record without doing the work it claims to record — the same value every shift, the sheet completed from the mess room. Worth understanding rather than moralising about: good operators pencil-whip bad rounds, because a round full of dead points that nobody reads has already announced it doesn't matter.See: Paper vs digital rounds

Temporary states

Temporary control

A declared, time-bounded abnormal operating state — an isolation in place while parts are on order, a defeated protective device, a temporary operating restriction — together with the compensating measures (usually extra checks) that must hold while it's live. The defining discipline: it ends by deliberate, authorised act, not by being forgotten.See: Temporary controls register

Override

Deliberately forcing or suppressing a protective function or automatic action so it cannot operate normally. Legitimate and sometimes necessary — and only defensible when authorised, when compensating measures are in place, and when a register shows every override currently live. Your site may say defeat, inhibit or bypass; the discipline is identical.See: Temporary controls register

Inhibit

Suppressing an alarm, trip or automatic action — typically at the control system — so it won't act or annunciate while the inhibit is applied. The classic failure is the inhibit that outlives the reason for it: applied for a test, still there a month later, discovered by an investigation.See: Temporary controls register

Bypass

Routing around a protective device or interlock — physically (hoses, jumpers, valved lines) or logically (forced signals) — so the plant can run while the device can't do its job. Every bypass is a bet that the compensating measures hold; weeks later, everyone remembers the job — not everyone remembers the bypass.See: Temporary controls register

Defeat

The umbrella term: rendering a protective device or function inoperative by any means — override, inhibit, bypass, or simply disconnecting the thing. Auditors tend to ask the question in this vocabulary: “show me every temporary defeat in the last twelve months, and who authorised restoration.”See: Temporary controls register

Process safety methods

HAZOP

Hazard and Operability study — a systematic, guideword-driven review of a process (no flow, more flow, reverse flow…) that identifies credible deviations, their causes and consequences, and raises actions. Relevant to rounds because HAZOP actions often become recurring operational checks — and an action that became a check nobody can trace back is a finding waiting to happen.

LOPA

Layer of Protection Analysis — a semi-quantitative method for judging whether the independent protection layers around a hazardous scenario (design, alarms, trips, relief, response) reduce its risk far enough. If a layer is defeated, the sums that justified running the plant change — which is why defeats need registers.

Permit to work

A formal documented system for controlling high-risk work — hot work, confined spaces, line breaking — specifying what will be done, the precautions, who authorises it and how the plant is handed back. A different discipline from an operator round, run by different rules; a round can be asked to watch plant that's under permit, but it never substitutes for the permit system.See: What a round is not

Management of change (MOC)

The formal process ensuring changes to plant, process or organisation are assessed, authorised and recorded before they take effect. The hardest cases are temporary changes — the “just for this run” modification — which is where MOC meets the temporary-controls register.See: Temporary controls register

Regulations (Great Britain)

COMAH

The Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations 2015 — Great Britain's implementation of the Seveso III Directive. Operators of qualifying sites must take all measures necessary to prevent major accidents and — the part that touches rounds — demonstrate through a safety management system that the measures actually run in practice. Inspectors ask “show me”, not “tell me”. See: Evidence for HSEQ

PSSR

The Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000 — requiring a written scheme of examination for relevant pressure systems, examinations by a competent person on that scheme, and records. Operating checks between examinations sit alongside the written scheme — never in place of it — and a statutory examination is never replaced by an operator round.See: Evidence for HSEQ

DSEAR

The Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002 — requiring risks from dangerous substances to be assessed and controlled, including classifying areas where explosive atmospheres may occur. The practical intersection with rounds: the device an operator carries into a classified zone is electrical equipment, and needs to be suitable for it.See: QR codes in hazardous areas

Systems and doctrine

CMMS

Computerised Maintenance Management System — SAP PM, Maximo and kin: the system of record for maintenance work orders, spares and asset history. It answers “what work was done on this equipment?” Rounds answer “what did the plant look like between the work?” The two should share vocabulary and hand off cleanly, and should not merge.See: Rounds alongside your CMMS

Identification vs authentication

The boundary that keeps equipment tagging honest. A scan identifies — it binds a record to the specific label in front of the device. It never authenticates— it can't prove who held the device, that they inspected anything, or that they stayed. Vendors who blur this write cheques the technology can't cash.See: QR codes on industrial equipment

Operational assurance

Knowing that operations are being carried out correctly — the right checks, by competent people, at the right times — and being able to proveit with evidence others can trust. Not a document set, and not paperwork for its own sake: operations don't become safer because paperwork exists.See: About Amberhold · The Complete Guide

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