Acronyms can be hard to figure out. When jumping between different industries, these seemingly harmless terms can lead to confusion, mass hysteria, or worse of all, potential problems with the end result. Today we discuss Management of Change or MOC.

Management of Change

MOC stems from the OSHA 1910.119 standard, Process Safety Management of Highly Hazardous Chemicals. Generally, the standard requires an "organized and efficient" process for documenting changes. Why do we need to document these changes? Mostly to have written proof of what, when, and why something was changed in case of an accident. Remember, the standards are specifically for highly hazardous chemicals, we should all feel a little bit more safe with these regulations in place.

Examples of reasons to perform an MOC:

• A change in process chemicals

• Technology changes

• Equipment changes and upgrades

• A change in procedures

• An increase or decrease in employees working on the process

When performing an MOC, be sure to record and include:

• The technical basis for the proposed change

• The impact of change on safety and health

• Modifications to operating procedures

• The necessary time period for the change

• Authorization requirements for the proposed change

Where to find MOCs?

Want to know more? Corso Systems has experience using, creating, and implementing MOCs. Much of what we've experienced has been based on the application and time in instituting an MOC. For example, many customers who are currently in an upgrade cycle want to integrate their new MOC within their existing systems. Ignition is a fantastic platform for this purpose, and fully functioning MOCs are built on Ignition. As a side note, because of the flexibility of Ignition, we can build just about anything, including LIMS applications with it.

Outside of Ignition, there are many custom built applications created with .NET or React. They may be stand alone, or you can work to integrating them with systems like the Rockwell Factory Talk Suite. Stand alone software solutions may offer everything that you'll (in theory) need to use standard best practices for MOC. While choosing to perform an MOC with paper and pencil may still (probably) keep you in compliance, you’ll miss out on the benefits of digitally recording the information, along with the ability to re-confirm the process and easily find past changes to compare with production and project future results.

What are you using your MOC to do?

Let us know what you're doing with your MOC, how it's been developed—and if you like it. If you're interested in adding MOC and/or having Corso Systems help put together a solution for you, please reach out and let us know!   

Updated - 6/15/2022